Google Finally Admits the Truth
For years, those of us who dared to speak openly about COVID-19, election integrity, and government overreach were censored. Ada Nestor | My Reflections from the Edge
We were banned from YouTube, silenced on social media, labeled “misinformation” peddlers, and treated like threats to democracy. The very act of asking questions became grounds for erasure.
Now, thanks to oversight from Chairman Jim Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee, the truth is finally out. Google admitted last week that the Biden administration pressured them to censor Americans, even when that content did not violate YouTube’s own rules. They admitted the pressure was “unacceptable and wrong.” And they promised to reinstate the creators who were deplatformed during those years.
The Committee’s summary can be found here:
https://judiciary.house.gov/media/in-the-news/google-reinstate-banned-youtube-accounts-censored-political-speech
Alphabet’s full letter to Chairman Jordan follows, and it is damning.
The Biden White House and Big Tech Collusion
Alphabet conceded that senior Biden officials, including the White House and President Biden himself, repeatedly pressed the company to remove videos and posts about COVID-19 that did not violate platform policies. That political pressure created an atmosphere where free debate was suffocated. Alphabet now admits that this reliance on government “authorities” was misguided, harmful, and ultimately indefensible.
Think about what was censored. Parents who questioned endless school closures. Doctors who warned about the developmental damage caused by masking children. Citizens who pointed out that lockdowns were destroying lives and livelihoods. Voices calling for common sense were silenced, while the official line was elevated and enforced.
This was not oversight. This was coercion. And it was aimed directly at American citizens trying to speak out about the harm being done to their families and communities.
The Rollback of Censorship
After years of compliance, Alphabet began quietly retreating from its most draconian policies.
In 2023, YouTube ended several COVID-19 restrictions. By December 2024, it retired the last of its COVID rules, finally allowing open discussion about treatments, origins, and the wisdom of policies like lockdowns and school closures. In June 2023, it lifted the ban on questioning the 2020 election and other past elections, admitting that shutting down debate about fraud, glitches, or irregularities was wrong.
Alphabet has now promised that those banned under these policies will be given the opportunity to return. They also pledged never again to outsource censorship to third-party fact-checkers. For years we were told fact-checkers were the guardians of truth. Today Alphabet admits they will no longer empower them to silence dissent.
At Scale, Across Every Platform
If you think this did not happen at scale, you are mistaken. Mark Zuckerberg admitted under oath that Facebook and Instagram censored Americans at the request of government officials. Elon Musk released the Twitter Files, which proved the FBI, DHS, and the Biden administration leaned heavily on Twitter to suppress speech. And now we have Google, in its own words, conceding that the White House pressured them to silence lawful voices.
This was not a glitch. It was a coordinated system. It was not isolated. It was industrial.
Censorship as a Weapon Beyond Big Tech
The censorship itself was only one tool in the arsenal. Over the last five years, it became a weapon used to silence the truth far beyond the platforms. Those who believed the government’s lies pointed to our deplatforming as proof that we must be wrong. If YouTube took it down, if Facebook labeled it “false,” if Twitter banned the account, then clearly the person behind it was a crank, a liar, or worse.
That circular logic was used to further demonize us in everyday society. It was used to shut us out of professional opportunities, to paint us as unstable, to cost us jobs and reputations. Our censorship became the evidence against us. The very act of being silenced was turned into a scarlet letter that people wore for daring to be correct too early.
This is how power works when it fears the truth. It does not just delete your words. It makes the deletion itself part of the punishment.
Acknowledging Conservative Voices
Alphabet went further than just admitting political pressure. In a rare moment of honesty, they acknowledged that conservative voices are not fringe, not marginal, and not disposable. They admitted these voices shape online culture, drive debate, and represent a massive portion of the public square. For years, the company treated conservatives like myself as a problem to be managed, throttled, or erased. Now, after years of litigation, oversight, and public outrage, they have been forced to concede that silencing one side of the political spectrum is not only unjust, it is impossible.
This is not a token gesture. Alphabet understands that it has already paid a steep price for alienating half the country. Their credibility is destroyed. Their trust is gone. They know that reinstating accounts and promising not to outsource censorship to “fact-checkers” will not erase what they did. But the admission matters because it exposes the lie that dominated for so long, that conservative thought was “dangerous” by definition, that it could be swept off the internet without consequence, and that no one would notice.
People noticed. Millions of us noticed. We built alternative platforms. We fought lawsuits. We kept speaking when they tried to make us silent. And now even Alphabet has been forced to admit what they tried for years to deny: conservative voices are essential to civic life, and no amount of pressure from the government or foreign regulators can erase that reality.
The Global Threat to Free Expression
Here’s the kicker and my favorite part of their response. After years of censoring Americans for saying things that turned out to be true, Alphabet now wants to warn us about the threat to free expression abroad. Yes, the same company that silenced parents questioning school closures, doctors challenging masking toddlers, and citizens demanding accountability for lockdowns is suddenly sounding the alarm about Europe’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.
You cannot make this up. The company that bent the knee to the Biden White House is now clutching its pearls about Brussels bureaucrats dictating what Americans can say online. They admit these EU laws could force them to remove lawful American speech, and they present it as if they are our last line of defense.
This is the same company that already sold us out. And now they want credit for warning us that it might happen again, just from a different address.
Truth and Reconciliation
For five years, we were called conspiracy theorists, extremists, and liars. We were silenced, deplatformed, and mocked for saying what Google now admits was true. We were right to question school closures that set back an entire generation of children. We were right to question the wisdom of masking toddlers for hours a day. We were right to demand open debate about lockdowns and their collateral damage. And we were right to point out that the government had crossed the line when it dictated what Americans could say and hear.
The government leaned on Big Tech to suppress dissent. Big Tech complied. Ordinary Americans paid the price.
There is no moving forward without truth and reconciliation. The truth is now undeniable. Reconciliation must come next, because trust cannot be rebuilt without it.
I never let them silence me, and neither did you. We were right to keep fighting.
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