By Gavin Boyle
As Google backtracks some of its policies implemented under the Biden administration, the tech company admitted to censoring certain non-violative content such as pro-life ads.
“Senior Biden Administration officials, including White House officials, conducted repeated and sustained outreach to Alphabet and pressed the company regarding certain user-generated content…As online platforms, including Alphabet, grappled with these decisions, the Administration’s officials, including President Biden, created a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of platforms based on their concerns regarding misinformation,” Google’s parent company Alphabet said in a Federal Judiciary Meeting.
“It is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the company moderates content, and the company consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds,” the statement continued.
Related: Google Bans Pro-Life Ads
Bending to the pressure from the previous administration, Google censored content related to COVID-19, elections and the pro-life movement. Google committed itself to restoring any accounts that were banned as a result of these decisions.
While this change in behavior is positive, the fact that it happened at all is unacceptable and highlights just how susceptible companies are to the whims of whatever party holds the Oval Office.
“We are not at all surprised by Google’s admission of censorship,” said Kelsey Pritchard, the political communications director to Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America. “For years, tech giants have demonstrated a pattern of bias, actively undermining, suppressing, and censoring groups like SBA Pro-Life America, who share the pro-life message in a highly effective way.”
This reversal of actions taken under the Biden Administration by Google mirrors that of many other social media companies who, shortly after President Trump was elected, committed themselves to free speech, rather than allowing censorship to reign on their platforms. Meta, for example, removed its fact checking feature in January, a tool that has long been used to silence those expressing traditional conservative beliefs.
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. I gave a speech at Georgetown five years ago about the importance about protecting free expression, and I still believe this today,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an Instagram video announcing the change. “We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”
Unfortunately, it is clear that the rolling back of these policies is all a ploy by companies to appease the Trump Administration and save themselves from any backlash. More likely than not, these stances will only be in place until a new administration takes over and likely demands something different. However, at least for the next three years, users can know they will not be censored for supporting conservative ideas, such as being pro-life.
Read Next: Love It or Hate It, Meta Ditched Fact-Checking. What It Means for You
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