YouTube to Restore Accounts Removed for Covid-19, Election Policy Violations

YouTube is set to reinstate previously banned accounts that were removed for posting Covid-19 or election-related misinformation. The decision was revealed in a letter from parent company Alphabet to Republican lawmaker Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

In a post on X, YouTube confirmed the move will be a limited pilot program, available to select creators and channels that were terminated under policies the company has since retired. The reinstatement initiative is expected to launch soon.

Back in 2021, YouTube banned content spreading misinformation about approved vaccines. Alphabet has also accused the Biden administration of pressuring the platform to impose stricter bans during that period.

“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,” Jim Jordan wrote on X while sharing the update.

Alphabet clarified that YouTube will not rely on fact-checkers to remove or label content. Instead, it will focus on a community-driven approach where users can add contextual notes to videos to combat misinformation.

Other tech companies have also shifted strategies. Meta, for example, ended its fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram earlier this year. Meanwhile, Google introduced a fact-checking tool in 2017 that continues to display labels on search and news results.