YouTube CEO Conveniently Stepping Down After House Issues Subpoena
Just one day after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives issued subpoenas to five Big Tech companies, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced her resignation from her position.
Wojcicki, whose tenure at YouTube included an alarming rise in censorship, wrote in a YouTube blog post that she had decided to “step back” from her role as CEO — explaining that she had plans to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”
Another openly pro-censorship YouTube employee, senior advertising and product executive Neal Mohan, will reportedly be replacing her as CEO. Mohan has previously bragged about the efficiency of YouTube’s censorship system.
Wojcicki was one of Google’s first employees nearly 25 years ago, and has served as CEO of YouTube for nine years. According to the New York Post, Wojcicki will continue to serve as an advisor for Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Alphabet was one of five Big Tech companies that received subpoenas from House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday in connection to the committee’s “weaponization of the federal government” panel.
Many critics have pointed to the coincidental timing of her resignation, arguing that it may have something to do with the subpoena.
Even though her replacement will likely continue to push the same pro-censorship agenda, free speech advocates are still happy that Wojcicki is finally out.
Dan Schneider, who serves as Vice President of MRC Free Speech America and MRC Business, spoke out about the news.
“YouTube has a long history of silencing conservatives and then making it impossible to appeal their decisions,” he said. “It is hard to imagine it picking anyone worse than Wojcicki. But then again Venezuelans picked Marxist Maduro after Hugo Chavez met his maker.”
The timing of Wojcicki’s resignation has led to speculation that she is worried about being held accountable for YouTube’s censorship, especially in light of the subpoenas regarding Big Tech’s collusion with the federal government to censor Americans.
“YouTube is one of the most aggressively pro-censorship Big Tech platforms,” MRC News Busters noted in their reporting on the issue, citing several examples including the fact that YouTube “twice censored two days’ worth of CPAC videos, once in March 2022 when it censored CPAC Florida and then again in September when it censored CPAC Texas.”
Wojcicki has continuously celebrated YouTube’s censorship, while at the same time expressing support for free speech.
In a September 2022 interview, Wojcicki claimed that YouTube wanted “as much free speech as we possibly can have” — and argued that the platform stands up to pro-censorship governments.
Meanwhile, she acknowledged in the same interview that YouTube censors content it deems “undesirable or not supporting society or not being responsible” — an extremely vague description that prompted criticism.
