Sitting down for a recent interview on Semafor’s Mixed Signals podcast, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan stood by the platform’s controversial suppression of COVID-era content it labeled “health misinformation,” offering no apologies and sidestepping questions about whether those decisions were ultimately misguided. He also declined to say whether videos of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (now the Secretary of Health and Human Services) that had been taken down during the pandemic would be reinstated.
Despite repeatedly and laughably positioning YouTube as a platform for free expression, Mohan continued to defend the imposition of broad speech restrictions. “YouTube is a place where you can go and share [your ideas] without somebody telling you that you don’t sound the right way… or you’re saying the wrong thing,” he said, while also justifying the takedown of large volumes of content that contradicted official narratives.
At the height of the pandemic, YouTube aggressively enforced policies against what it classified as “misinformation.” Mohan cited the uncertainty of early 2020 as justification. “What was happening in the world in March of 2020 is very different than what’s happening in the world in March of 2025,” he said.
