Watchdog group pushes Google, YouTube parent company for government censorship requests

An ethics watchdog is using shareholder activism to try to pry information about whether the Biden administration has been essentially outsourcing censorship to Google and YouTube.  

"We have filed a proposal for consideration by the shareholders to require Alphabet to produce a report showing if anyone from the government asked them to remove content," Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, told FOX Business.

In January, the National Legal and Policy Center filed a shareholder resolution calling on Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google and YouTube, to disclose requests from the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other federal agencies or entities about taking down information.

The NLPC holds shares in Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube. Flaherty said he expects Alphabet will ask the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to omit the resolution from consideration by its shareholders. He said it’s clearly in the public interest to know if "the government is compelling censorship" on two of the most widely used venues on the Internet.