Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) just announced a seismic censorship shift, revealing that tech giant Google has renounced government collaboration and rampant censorship, much of which was exposed and condemned by the Media Research Center.
In a letter to U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jordan on Tuesday, Google’s parent company Alphabet owned up to its infamous history of censoring disfavored speech, and even promised that YouTube would ease up on censoring political content. The tech giant also shockingly revealed that it had censored COVID-19-related content that did not violate the platform’s policies at the behest of the Biden administration.
Counsel for Alphabet added in the letter, “Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.”
MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider responded to Alphabet’s admissions, saying, “Google has finally entered a 12-step program to address its TDS. It has been the last holdout among Big Tech companies, but admitting it has a problem is a start.”
Search behemoth Google and its video platform YouTube are responsible for a combined 1,399 cases of censorship in MRC Free Speech America’s exclusive CensorTrack database and have a history of ruthlessly silencing and demonetizing speech on transgenderism, COVID-19, abortion and other issues.
In the shocking letter revealed by Jordan today, Alphabet specifically called out the Biden administration for pressuring its platforms to censor online speech, calling the coercion “unacceptable and wrong.”
In a Sept. 23 post on X, Jordan announced these wins, pointing out the work of his House Judiciary Committee, writing, “Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform.” Jordan noted that YouTube began to dismantle its censorship regime after his committee launched its investigation. He also touted that “YouTube acknowledges that public debate should NEVER come at the expense of relying on ‘authorities.’”
Additionally, the Google letter included the claim that YouTube had not and would not partner with paid third-party fact-checkers to label content. Fact-checkers at Meta infamously worked to censor content before being ousted by Meta Founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Although YouTube has not had a third-party label its content, the platform itself has been known to append “context” notes to various types of content, including videos that discuss abortion, climate change and elections. According to the letter, YouTube will be considering a system that allows users to add “context” notes to videos.
The letter concludes with a warning that the EU is also putting great pressure on American tech companies to censor, and the rights of Americans are at risk.
Indeed, the draconian Digital Services Act (DSA) requires tech companies to do essentially everything Google has just renounced, from censoring content flagged by governments to empowering third-party fact-checkers. In July, the EU integrated its once-allegedly voluntary “Code of Conduct on Disinformation” into the DSA, importing a raft of vicious anti-free speech policies that companies such as Google and X had withdrawn from compliance with.
ICYMI: Anti-Free Speech EU Imposes Will on Yet Another Big Tech Company
These admissions and changes follow years of censorship documented by MRC Free Speech America.
CensorTrack researchers documented how YouTube shut down scientific discussion and repeatedly censored users who dared speak about Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine as a potential remedy for COVID-19. The platform additionally silenced the stories of women who had detransitioned and were warning about the dangers of social and medical gender transitioning. YouTube also terminated the account of the pro-life publication LifeSite News in 2021, while Google banned Live Action ads, according to the pro-life organization’s president and founder, Lila Rose. Even footage from the Jan. 6 Committee was censored on YouTube, as part of an all-out effort to silence Trump’s speech.
But Google’s blatant censorship is just the tip of the iceberg; its enormous influence and unfettered bias are unmatched.
In fact, MRC researchers found 41 examples of Google engaging in election interference from 2008 to early 2024. These included disabling then-presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard’s Google ads account and burying the campaign websites of GOP Senate candidates in competitive races in 2022.
During the 2024 election campaign, MRC Free Speech America repeatedly caught Google playing the same game against President Donald Trump, repeatedly suppressing his website, including during the Republican National Convention, right before the decisive July presidential debate between Trump and Biden and after a Soros DA secured a guilty verdict against Trump that year. In each case, Trump’s own website failed to appear in the top 10 results, while the Democrats enjoyed pride of place, including twice appearing as the top result.
Furthermore, MRC Free Speech America busted Google for rigging news coverage against President Donald Trump and in favor of his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, in six successive studies looking into search results in October 2024 and on election day itself. For example, on October 9, 2024, users searching for “donald trump presidential race 2024” had to go to the 23rd page of Google results to find the first U.S.-based right-of-center result, while articles from the unfriendly Washington Post, Time, CNN, and The New York Times were far easier to find.
Google would do the same to Trump’s nominees as they were announced, as MRC researchers repeatedly found that Google presented users with few, if any, right-of-center results on the first page, while instead offering leftist coverage, including vicious attacks. These included a Vanity Fair article telling the wife of now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to divorce him and an MSNBC piece with a headline labeling now-FBI Director Kash Patel as a snake oil salesman.
While it remains to be seen whether Google will censor right-of-center coverage in search results and engage in election interference in the future, the search giant has renounced the censorship that makes up the bulk of CensorTrack entries.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Image above credited to Gage Skidmore.
