While uproar lingers over ABC’s temporary cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show, Google on Tuesday acknowledged that the Biden administration exerted “unacceptable and wrong” pressure upon the company to remove YouTube content related to Covid-19. 

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, shared the stunning disclosure in a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee following a years-long investigation. 

“It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content, and the Company has consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds,” Alphabet’s senior counsel stated in the letter. 

The company shared that during the 2020 pandemic, Biden administration officials — including President Biden himself — pressed Google to remove YouTube content related to Covid-19 that did not actually violate the platform’s existing policies. This created “a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation.”

During that period, thousands of accounts were shut down for repeatedly violating Covid-19 and elections integrity policies. Notable figures affected included the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, who was banned in 2022 after posting a video questioning mask effectiveness; a former White House counterterrorism advisor, Sebastian Gorka, who was penalized for suggesting the 2020 election was fraudulent, and “War Room” podcast host Steve Bannon, whose account was suspended after making inflammatory comments about Anthony Fauci.

Since then, however, Google’s approach to pandemic-related content has “evolved” and it currently allows a “wide range of content regarding COVID-19 and elections.” Consequently, the tech giant committed to reinstating YouTube accounts that received permanent bans under policies the company has since discontinued.

“YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse,” the company wrote. 

The development follows efforts by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee to investigate suppression of speech by technology companies on topics including Covid-19, the 2020 election, and the Hunter Biden laptop story.

The committee also launched a probe into social media conglomerate Meta, which eliminated its third-party fact-checking system last year after acknowledging that it faced pressure from the White House to censor certain posts related to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Representative Jim Jordan, who championed the committee’s effort, called the letter a “MASSIVE” win “for the American people, the First Amendment, and freedom” and promised that “we won’t stop fighting to protect free speech.”

The free speech debate has intensified in recent weeks following ABC’s temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show following his comments regarding the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. While Governor Spencer Cox of Utah indicated that evidence suggested the perpetrator likely held a “leftist ideology,” Mr. Kimmel suggested the killer was a member of the “MAGA gang.”

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, criticized Mr. Kimmel’s remarks, stating: “Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Following these comments, ABC pulled Mr. Kimmel’s show from the air indefinitely. However, by Monday, the network had reversed course and decided to restore the program.