Google Says Users Removed Over COVID-19 Views Can Rejoin YouTube
Google Says Users Removed Over COVID-19 Views Can Rejoin YouTube
(emphasis ours),
YouTube creators who were removed over their views concerning COVID-19 or the 2020 election can rejoin the service, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, said in a Sept. 23 letter.
Rules in place prohibiting some discussion of COVID-19 and the election were lifted in 2023 or 2024, Google
through its lawyers.
“Today, YouTube’s Community Guidelines allow for a wider range of content regarding COVID-19 and elections integrity,” it stated. “Reflecting the Company’s commitment to free expression, YouTube will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the Company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.”
People whose channels were 
or taken down included Dan Bongino, the current deputy director of the FBI.
The company said it values conservative content creators and recognizes they regularly land compelling interviewers with politicians, business leaders, and others.
Google described the COVID-19 pandemic as an unprecedented time that forced online platforms to “balance freedom of expression” with moderation of content “that could result in real-world harm.” The situation was complicated by top officials in the Biden administration pressuring the company to take action against certain COVID-19 content “that did not violate its policies,” it said.
“It is 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 those efforts on First Amendment grounds,” the company stated.
YouTube’s medical content policies evolved throughout the pandemic, as health authorities changed their guidance, the company said. The company is now allowing a wide range of content on COVID-19 and elections.
“In contrast to other large platforms, YouTube has not operated a fact-checking program that identifies and compensates fact-checking partners to produce content to support moderation,” the letter states. “YouTube has not and will not empower fact-checkers to take action on or label content across the Company’s services.”
The letter was sent to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
“Whether you were an established YouTube presence with a massive following like Dan Bongino or just were starting out to express political views there, YOU will have an opportunity to come back onto the platform if you were censored for engaging in political speech,” Jordan wrote on X. “This is another victory in the fight against censorship.”
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, 
in 2024 that the company was pressured by top Biden administration officials “to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.” Ultimately, he wrote, it was up to the company to take down or leave up the content.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg added later.
Documents 
the case, finding the states did not show they were directly harmed by the efforts.
Tue, 09/23/2025 - 21:45
The Epoch Times
Google Says Users Removed Over COVID-19 Views Can Rejoin YouTube
The company also said it has not and will not employ so-called fact-checkers.
Rules in place prohibiting some discussion of COVID-19 and the election were lifted in 2023 or 2024, Google DocumentCloud
The Epoch Times
Dan Bongino Permanently Suspended by YouTube
The Epoch Times
Zuckerberg Says He Regrets Demoting COVID-19 Content
‘I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,’ Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
The Epoch Times
Over 50 Biden Administration Employees, 12 US Agencies Involved in Social Media Censorship Push: Documents
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge
Google Says Users Removed Over COVID-19 Views Can Rejoin YouTube | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Gen Z’s fragility is shocking to those of us who grew up with brave parents who fought in world wars and who immigrated with nothing but a strong will to live free. Gen Z focuses on perceived harms from words, demanding censorship for protection, with 
Key details about Kirk's public memorial:
Speakers: President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Kirk's widow, Erika, who has just been named CEO of Turning Point USA.
Security: The Department of Homeland Security has classified the event as a SEAR Level 1 gathering - the highest designation, typically reserved for events of national significance - unlocking full federal security support, according to NBC News.
Turning Point USA said Kirk's memorial service is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time. NBC News estimates the event could draw "a crowd as large as 100,000 people."
Meanwhile, a Glendale Police Department spokesperson told CNN News that she estimates crowds could exceed 200,000.
State Farm Stadium has a maximum capacity of 63,000, with the ability to expand by an additional 10,000. Down the street, Desert Diamond Arena will serve as an overflow site, with seating for about 20,000.
Eleven days ago, Kirk was assassinated by a radical leftist while speaking at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson has been charged with aggravated murder and obstruction of justice in connection with Kirk's death. Robinson is a furry-loving leftist who was in a relationship with a transgender person. There have been no links yet between Robinson and far-left groups, but that hasn't stopped the White House from taking the rise of far-left militancy seriously.
Last week, the Trump administration requested tens of millions of dollars for extra security and vowed to 
In a document 
“The article’s author suggests that U.S. federal deficits are ballooning, with spending surging due to the combined impact of tax cuts, expansive stimulus, and entitlement expenditures. Of course, with institutions like Yale, Wharton, and the CBO warning that this trend has pushed interest costs to new heights, now exceeding defense outlays, concerns about domestic solvency are rising. Even prominent figures in the media, from Larry Summers to Ray Dalio, argue that drastic action is urgently needed, otherwise another “financial crisis” is imminent.”
As we discussed in that article, the “purveyors of doom” have been saying the same thing for the last two decades, yet the American growth engine continues chugging along. Notably, Ray Dalio and Larry Summers focus on only one solution: “cutting spending,” which has horrible economic consequences.
“Furthermore, investors must understand a critical accounting concept: that the government’s debt is the household’s asset. In accounting, for every debit there is a credit that must always equal zero. In this case, when the Government issues debt (a debit), it is sent into the economy for infrastructure, defense, social welfare, etc. That money is “credited” to the bank accounts of households and corporations. Therefore, when the deficit increases, that money winds up in economic activity, and vice versa. In other words, those shouting for sharp deficit reductions are also rooting for a deep economic recession.” – 
However, you can’t build a data center without power.
Data Centers Require Power
According to the Department of Energy, U.S. data center electricity consumption could double or triple by 2028. Deloitte expects a 30-fold increase in AI-related data center power usage by 2035, reaching 123 gigawatts. That’s more than the total residential demand in California. This means building new substations, transmission lines, and power plants. Therefore, as noted by 
The chart below assumes we will continue to issue debt at the average quarterly pace since 2021. However, instead of wasting money, we focus on productive investments while maintaining all current spending programs and obligations. Assuming some conservative growth estimates resulting from the investments, the “debt to GDP” ratio will begin declining in 2026 and revert to more sustainable levels by 2030.
However, this isn’t a guarantee, but it is certainly potentially more realistic than a “debt crisis” that sends the U.S. into an economic depression.
Risks and Constraints
The growth opportunity is significant, but not risk-free. While the bears constantly ring the alarm bell about the current level of debt and deficits, the more dire economic consequences they forecast may fail to come to fruition.
As noted by Goldman Sachs:
“Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to automate many work tasks and eventually boost global economic growth. AI will start having a measurable impact on US GDP in 2027 and begin affecting growth in other economies worldwide in the following years. The foundation of the forecast is the finding that AI could ultimately automate around 25% of labor tasks in advanced economies and 10-20% of work in emerging economies.”
They currently estimate a growth boost to GDP from AI of 0.4 percentage points in the US.
Increases in productivity, productive capital investment, and increased labor demand for the infrastructure buildout (which will also result in higher wages) should provide the economic boost needed.
Conclusion
Will it solve all of the current socio-economic ills facing the U.S.? No. However, it may provide the growth boost necessary to revitalize economic growth and prosperity in the U.S., which we have not seen since the 1970s. But there are risks to this outlook.
The scale of spending may lift electricity prices. A study from NC State found national prices could rise 8 percent by 2030, with some localities seeing 20–25 percent jumps. If not managed, this could erode industrial competitiveness.
Jobs per dollar of investment are low. Data centers are automated. Once built, they require few workers. A $1 billion facility may employ only 100 people full-time.
There is a local backlash. Projects require land, water, and energy. Communities are resisting tax incentives and environmental costs. Several counties have imposed moratoriums.
Permitting delays and regulatory hurdles remain high. The average interconnection wait for new power projects is over 3 years. Without reform, many AI investments will be delayed or redirected.
The government will need to be involved to unlock the full economic benefit.
Public policy must streamline permitting, including environmental review, grid interconnection, and land use.
Given that infrastructure and national security are at stake, a public/private partnership should be involved.
Tax policy should avoid distortion. Many subsidies go to projects that were already economically viable.
The focus should be on shared infrastructure, such as transmission lines, regional data hubs, and reliability upgrades.
Utilities need regulatory clarity. Traditional cost-of-service models may not align with the fast pace of AI demand, so performance-based rates or return-on-equity mechanisms may be required.
Energy policy must support generation diversity. Solar and wind are inefficient, and AI demands require firm natural gas, nuclear, and advanced storage capacity.
The goal should be energy abundance. High reliability, low prices, and scalable infrastructure will attract private AI investment and increase growth.
It may also just be enough to keep the demise of the U.S. from occurring any time soon.
Decades of cultural messaging have focused on the harms caused by religious, conservative belief systems. Individuals and groups who fall on the margins of conservative ideology have been studied in universities, profiled in elite magazines, and their plights have been sympathetically portrayed in Hollywood.
The word “bigotry” has long been associated with backward, conservative values. Manhattan Institute Fellow Colin Wright captured the left’s lurch towards extremism in a viral meme, updated after Kirk’s assassination:
Kirk’s assassination comes at an inflection point in American culture and politics. Donald Trump’s political career, and the corresponding progressive response, have revealed the degree to which leftist cultures can serve as incubators of hatred. Casual progressive dehumanization has spread into disturbing displays of gruesome violence. In just the past year, the public witnessed Trump’s attempted assassination, an anti-Trump transgender slaughter of Catholic school children, and a gruesome stabbing in Charlotte.
While each individual is responsible for their individual actions, the media and other left-wing responses to violent incidents paint a clear and troubling picture. Violence on the left tends to be minimized, while rhetoric on the right is treated as synonymous with violence itself.
That Kirk was assassinated on a college campus—a sanctuary of left-wing thought—is profound. Progressive students sought to silence Kirk by 
How People Use ChatGPT
The table below summarizes the major use categories identified in the study:
Over 55% of ChatGPT prompts fell into either learning or productivity-related tasks. Users often turn to the chatbot for help understanding concepts, writing emails, summarizing articles, or coding. A wide base of users are using the tool as a digital assistant, tutor, or research aide.
Meanwhile, niche categories like roleplaying and entertainment make up a smaller but meaningful slice. These uses include things like fictional storytelling, game design, and writing fan fiction. Their growth points to ChatGPT’s creative potential beyond functional tasks.
Why This Study Matters
This is the first large-scale analysis that classifies how ChatGPT is actually used, rather than relying on anecdotal evidence or surveys. It also reveals how people across professions—from marketers to software developers—are integrating AI into their daily workflows.
Another key insight? Most people still use the free version of ChatGPT. Only about 10% of the prompts analyzed came from paid users of GPT-4, suggesting that even the free-tier model is driving 
Similar announcements of possible life on Mars have occurred since the very beginning of exploration. In 1976 the Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers took soil samples which yielded positive readings of microbial activity, but the evidence was later deemed "ambiguous".
In 1996 a team of NASA scientists claimed to have found microscopic fossils of living organisms 4 billion years old in a Mars meteorite, but the data was labeled inconclusive due to suspicions of contamination.
At one time, billions of years ago, Mars may have had very similar environmental and atmospheric conditions to the Earth, with all the necessary ingredients to feed living organisms. The long running theory is that Mars lost it's magnetic field and solar winds destroyed it's atmosphere, though this claim remains unproven. The events that led to Mars becoming a vast scorched red desert are still a mystery.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Rubio confirmed that the State Department will not grant visas to people who celebrated Kirk’s death and said that people who have U.S. visas will have their status revoked.
“We are not in the business of inviting people to visit our country who are going to be involved in negative and destructive, okay,” Rubio told the outlet.
“If I invite someone, if we invite someone to visit the United States of America, as a student, as a tourist, as whatever, then the standard they should be held to is very high.”
Some social media users and influencers have made comments celebrating the Turning Point USA founder’s death, and some have been subsequently fired or suspended. Those include university employees, airline pilots, teachers, and doctors.
An organization called the Charlie Kirk Data Foundation has 
