Multiple Biden administration officials, including the chief executive himself, conducted a sustained pressure campaign on Google to censor content the government considered to be misinformation, but which would not otherwise have violated the digital giant’s policies, according to an extraordinary letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
“The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented time in which online platforms had to reach decisions about how best to balance freedom of expression with responsibility, including responsibility with respect to the moderation of user-generated content that could result in real-world harm,” Alphabet Counsel Daniel F. Donavan told Jordan in a September 23 letter.
Alphabet is the holding company that owns Google, YouTube, and numerous other digital properties.
“Senior Biden administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the company regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate its policies,” Donovan wrote. “While the company continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press the company to remove non-violative user-generated content.”
Google’s efforts to cope with Biden administration censorship pressure were made doubly difficult because “the administration officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation,” Donovan continued.
Throughout the period in question, Donovan told Jordan, Google officials viewed it as “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 these efforts on First Amendment grounds.”
Donovan’s letter comes as Jordan’s Judiciary panel investigators have documented multiple examples of Biden administration censorship pressures, which succeeded in silencing the expression of views the White House found objectionable, including allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential vote, the January 6, 2021 protests by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol, and medical science-based worries about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Google description of Biden administration censorship efforts was provided in response to a March 6, 2025 subpoena issued by Jordan’s committee seeking multiple documents illustrating how the pressure was applied by the federal government.
“The committee’s oversight has revealed that YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was a direct participant in the federal government’s censorship regime. In particular, the committee obtained documents showing that the federal government successfully pressured YouTube to censor certain lawful content, including content that did not violate YouTube’s content moderation policies. Throughout the previous Congress, the committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech, including censorship of FBI whistleblowers who testified before the Committee,” Jordan told Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai in the March 6 subpoena cover letter.
Jordan also pointed out in that March letter to Pichai that “Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, admitted that it was wrong to bow to the Biden-Harris Administration’s demands, publicly committed to restoring free speech on its platforms, and reformed its policies. Alphabet, to our knowledge, has not similarly disavowed the Biden-Harris Administration’s attempts to censor speech.”
The Washington Stand was among the numerous victims of the censorship that resulted from the Biden administration’s pressures. A July 16, 2021 interview on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” with Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children’s Health Defense, was removed from the internet by YouTube on July 19, four days after the Biden White House announced its plan to flag what it termed “misinformation” about COVID-19 issues.
In the interview, Holland discussed with host and Family Research Council President Perkins “the dangers of removing parental protections from medical decisions involving children. The interview was within the context of the COVID-19 vaccines, but contained no medical information or advice,” according to a July 23 statement by FRC, which produces “Washington Watch.”
“We are glad to see our video restored on YouTube but recognize that there are many conservatives who are quietly being censored and do not have an adequate recourse to get the heavy hand of Big Tech giants like YouTube to budge,” Perkins said in a statement after YouTube restored the interview.
“If it was not FRC — with a nationwide platform on nearly 800 radio stations and tens of thousands of engaged Christians reading our daily communications — would YouTube have admitted their error? It seems like Big Tech’s default setting is to shut up conservatives, requiring them to jump through hoops and file appeals in order to speak on issues from a perspective different from that of the Left. This should not be. Conservatives should not have to get media attention in order to be heard. YouTube is failing to live up to its stated mission ‘to give everyone a voice and show them the world,’” Perkins continued.
At the height of the censorship prompted by the Biden White House, Trump was banned from Twitter.
In a May 1, 2024, report by the judiciary panel’s staff, congressional investigators said the Biden White House’s censorship pressures “largely succeeded” and “its effects were devastating. By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits.”
“Instead, policymakers implemented a series of public health measures that proved to be disastrous for the country. From unnecessary extended school closures to unconstitutional vaccine mandates that forced workers to take a newly developed vaccine or risk losing their jobs, the Biden Administration and other officials needlessly imposed harm and suffering on Americans across the country,” the report said.
The Judiciary Committee’s investigation continues, but spokesman Russell Dye told TWS that “everything is on the table as to what comes next.”
This bad behavior will continue until people start going to jail (criminal convictions) and loosing their wealth (civil convictions) – and with it their reputations. The criminals have learned they can get away with the crimes and so there is no incentive to stop their criminal activity. The criminals are immoral and/or are psychopaths.
In this particular case, you must convict the government people who applied pressure – going all the way up the chain to those who created and authorized such bad behavior. Likewise, you need to convict the corresponding people in the companies that went along with immoral policies – going all the way up the chain to the company CEO/President.
In my estimation, roughly 3 to 5% of the population engaged in clearly criminal activity during the COVID era and need to be prosecuted.
My opinion – your milage will vary.
I don’t understand what they meant when using the term ” they were under pressure” from the Biden’ s WH. What pressure, “pressure” meaning what exactly? Death threats, money paid to these platforms and they will get no money from the government, , if that was the case, it tells me that they never were a “free speech” platform, only a platform for the government. Seriously, this term is being used, in my opinion, to mean absolutely nothing and yet in continues. Meanwhile, all talk with no accountability. Now this new administration apparently, has these Technocrats on their side, is it because they are under pressure? Good Grief and the same merry go round continues! I would like to get off, and our government has to leave opinions alone! They can have theirs, and we can have ours! Free Speech is what discussions are all about!!