FIRST ON FOX: YouTube is giving creators who were banned for certain types of political speech a chance to reinstate their accounts on the video-sharing platform and retain their former audiences, but they must act before Sunday, otherwise they will need to start from scratch.
YouTube users must go through an appeals process by Nov. 9 to restore former accounts banned over content related to COVID-19 and elections, two sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
The sources said YouTube will still allow the users back on the platform after that date but that their former page and subscribers will not be restored at that point.
GOOGLE TO REINSTATE BANNED YOUTUBE ACCOUNTS CENSORED FOR POLITICAL SPEECH
The revelation that accounts can maintain their past subscribers, albeit for a short window, comes as part of a string of commitments that Google, YouTube’s parent company, made to Congress in September.
The big tech giant vowed in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee to lift the account bans on those who spread perceived misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic and the 2020 election, citing that it valued free expression and had relaxed its speech policies in the last couple of years.
CNN REPORTER SAYS LIBERALS SHOULD ‘ACTIVELY ACKNOWLEDGE’ THEIR ROLE IN CANCEL CULTURE
Google was among multiple big tech companies that came under intense scrutiny from congressional Republicans for acquiescing to Biden administration demands to suppress content in 2020 that the government viewed as faulty or politically unfavorable.
Among those booted from its YouTube platform for now-defunct censorship practices were regular users with small followings and more well-known accounts like those of now-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and White House counterterrorism chief Sebastian Gorka.
Bongino has since taken YouTube up on its offer and reinstated his accounts through the appeals process, one of the sources told Fox News Digital. Bongino has retained his old content and more than 800,000 subscribers, according to one of his YouTube pages.
Google conveyed to congressional aides that the reinstatement offer could affect thousands of YouTube users, according to another source.
Fox News Digital reached out to Google for comment.
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