Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Back in September, Alphabet blamed YouTube censorship policies on pressure from the Biden administration.
- Numerous YouTube executives have given testimony that directly rebuts that claim.
- Now Committee on the Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin is demanding answers.
The past ten months have got to be the start of one of the most embarrassing years for tech heavyweights in recent memory. One after the other, firms like Apple, Meta, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and of course, Google, have been prostrating themselves before a government administration they’d previously butted heads with. But in 2025, acquiescence is the name of the game, and rather than bracing for another four years of conflict, they’ve instead been kissing the ring.
A few weeks back, that extended to YouTube performing a massive about-face on the necessary steps it had taken to ban some of the worst voices on its platform, spreading lies, hate, and disinformation — instead opening the door to restore their access. That move was telegraphed in late September when Alphabet legal counsel submitted a letter to the House Committee on the Judiciary, blaming COVID-era YouTube moderation policies on pressure the company had received from the Biden administration.
Now a new letter from Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin confronts YouTube CEO Neal Mohan with statements from numerous YouTube VPs and other executives, all making the same claims: They never saw any Biden administration pressure, and instead developed their policies internally (via Wired).
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Representative Raskin does not pull any punches in his letter, directly asking Mohan, “what did the Administration promise your company, and what did it threaten you with?” After highlighting various testimony from YouTube executives, none of which appears to remotely support the statements Alphabet made in its September letter, Raskin incredulolsly asks what we’re supposed to believe:
Are you now asserting that all of these witnesses lied to or misled the Committee? Is it more likely that all of these 20 witnesses got together to plan and provide false testimony or that you wrote an unsworn letter contradicting all of them to placate President Trump and his servants?
Raskin goes on to request documents relating to content moderation policies and communication with the government, and to identify any testimony by those YouTube execs that the company now asserts is false. The politician wraps things up by inviting Mohan to appear for an interview before the Committee next month — we would not be holding our breath for him to accept.
We’ve reached out to Google to see if it has anything to say about this development, and will update this post with whatever we ultimately hear back.
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