YouTube execs deny Biden censorship stress

The previous ten months have gotten to be the beginning of one of the vital embarrassing years for tech heavyweights in current reminiscence. One after the opposite, companies like Apple, Meta, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and naturally, Google, have been prostrating themselves earlier than a authorities administration they’d beforehand butted heads with. However in 2025, acquiescence is the secret, and moderately than bracing for one more 4 years of battle, they’ve as a substitute been kissing the ring.

Just a few weeks again, that prolonged to YouTube performing a large about-face on the required steps it had taken to ban a number of the worst voices on its platform, spreading lies, hate, and disinformation — as a substitute opening the door to revive their entry. That transfer was telegraphed in late September when Alphabet authorized counsel submitted a letter to the Home Committee on the Judiciary, blaming COVID-era YouTube moderation insurance policies on stress the corporate had acquired from the Biden administration.

Now a brand new letter from Committee rating member Jamie Raskin confronts YouTube CEO Neal Mohan with statements from quite a few YouTube VPs and different executives, all making the identical claims: They by no means noticed any Biden administration stress, and as a substitute developed their insurance policies internally (by way of Wired).

Consultant Raskin doesn’t pull any punches in his letter, straight asking Mohan, “what did the Administration promise your organization, and what did it threaten you with?” After highlighting varied testimony from YouTube executives, none of which seems to remotely assist the statements Alphabet made in its September letter, Raskin incredulolsly asks what we’re purported to imagine:

Are you now asserting that every one of those witnesses lied to or misled the Committee? Is it extra probably that every one of those 20 witnesses bought collectively to plan and supply false testimony or that you just wrote an unsworn letter contradicting all of them to placate President Trump and his servants?

Raskin goes on to request paperwork regarding content material moderation insurance policies and communication with the federal government, and to establish any testimony by these YouTube execs that the corporate now asserts is fake. The politician wraps issues up by inviting Mohan to seem for an interview earlier than the Committee subsequent month — we might not be holding our breath for him to simply accept.

We’ve reached out to Google to see if it has something to say about this improvement, and can replace this publish with no matter we in the end hear again.