YouTube to restore accounts blocked due to words about the US elections

The YouTube streaming platform will restore accounts that questioned the transparency of the 2020 US presidential election and the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a letter from YouTube's parent company, Alphabet, to the US House of Representatives Committee on Judicial Affairs.

"The company has shut down the channels for repeated violations of community rules regarding content on election transparency up to and including 2023 and on COVID-19 up to and including 2024. <… > Reflecting the company's commitment to freedom of expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all authors to return to the platform if their channels have been deleted for repeated violations of policies on COVID-19 and elections that are no longer valid," the New York Post (NYP) newspaper quotes the statement.

In addition, the letter notes that the administration of former United States President Joe Biden exerted pressure to remove content that does not violate the rules of the service. At the same time, YouTube stated that it "values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these authors have significant reach and play an important role in public discussion."

Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma Committee on information Policy and federal coordinator of the Digital Russia party project, said on May 30 that YouTube would be able to return to full-fledged work in the Russian Federation if it fulfilled a number of certain conditions. According to the deputy, the key condition for the American company will be to restore access to the blocked accounts of Russian media and bloggers.

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