misinformation

Google has announced it will reverse a major content moderation decision: YouTube will offer channels that were banned for spreading covid and election misinformation in 2020 a pathway back onto the platform.

In a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee, Alphabet’s lawyers claimed that the Biden administration had previously “pressed the Company” to remove user-generated Covid-19 content that had not violated Alphabet’s policies, and that the “political atmosphere” had forced their hand. “It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the Company moderates content,” they wrote.

Stating that YouTube’s Community Guidelines around election integrity and covid-19 content had evolved significantly since 2020, Alphabet said that, in order to reflect their “commitment to free expression,” they would offer an opportunity for creators to return to YouTube if the rules they’d broken back then “are no longer in effect.” YouTube will also stop using third-party fact checkers, which the GOP and the MAGA influencer world previously argued undermined conservative content that spread misinformation.

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

YouTube also posted a separate statement on X clarifying the nature of the program, calling it a “limited pilot project that will be available to a subset of creators in addition to those channels terminated for policies that have been deprecated.”

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has subpoenaed Google and Alphabet several times over the years, most recently to ask whether the Biden administration had pushed them in any way to suppress “free speech”. On Tuesday, he celebrated Alphabet’s policy change in a thread on X, stating that YouTube was making “amends” to the American people by giving deplatformed content creators such as Dan Bongino, now the deputy director of the FBI, a way back on. “This is another victory in the fight against censorship,” he wrote, and laid out Google’s other political concessions, such as joining the American right-wing in opposition to European content moderation laws, which they claim censor American free speech.

Alphabet is also currently dealing with antitrust lawsuits from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, which have not let up under the Trump administration. Itrecently got a slight reprieve in its search results trial, when a federal judge ruled that Google is allowed to keep Chrome despite holding an illegal monopoly on search engines. In another case, after being found guilty of holding an illegal monopoly in digital advertising, Google is now arguing in federal court that its lucrative ad tech business should not be broken up.

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Stop Destroying Videogames – the European campaign inspired by the Stop Killing Games movement – has shared a progress update as EU countries continue verifying petition signatures, saying it’s preparing for the next stage, which will include “countering misinformation and industry lobbying”.

Stop Destroying Videogames is looking to convince the EU to pass regulations preventing “the remote disabling of video games by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said video games without the involvement from the side of the publisher.” To that end, it turned to the European Citizens’ Initiative – an official EU mechanism designed to provide a way for citizens to propose a legal act to the European Commission – and successfully surpassed 1.4m signatures before the petition closed in July.

With several months having passed since then, Stop Destroying Videogames organisers have now shared a progress update on the Stop Killing Games subreddit. At present, the post explained, all signatures are being checked by national authorities. As previously noted, if 1m signatures are successfully verified (the post adds “early reports from several countries show around 97 percent of signatures being valid”), the petition can then be presented to the EU for either a public hearing or full debate session at the European Parliament. “That moment will mark the start of the legislative phase,” the post continues, “where the Commission and Parliament must decide how to respond.”

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While verification continues – a process that should take around three months – Stop Destroy Videogames is preparing for the next stage of its campaign. The goal, organisers explain, is to ensure “our initiative cannot be ignored”, and so it’s working toward, “Legislative outreach to Members of Parliament and the Commission; countering misinformation and industry lobbying; strengthening our community structures to support this next stage.” Some work will, by necessity, remain behind the scenes. “Past attempts to undermine the initiative,” organisers write, “have shown us the risks of being too open.”

Stop Destroying Videogames also noted some “long-time contributors” – including Ross Scott, the figurehead of the main Stop Killing Games initiative – have “stepped back” after years of effort. In a follow-up comment, Ross clarified, “It’s more like I’m ‘on call’ for anything where me being involved would help a lot. Most of what’s happening now is best left to people familiar with EU political processes like Mortiz [Katzner], so I’m leaving most things to people who know what they’re doing better than I do to maximise our odds.”

“This campaign exists only because of you,” the post concludes, “and with your continued support we can make sure our voices are heard in Brussels.”

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YouTube gives creators who spread covid misinformation a chance to return

As Stop Destroying Videogames petition verification continues in EU, organisers are preparing to ‘counter misinformation and industry lobbying’