YouTube said Tuesday it will begin allowing banned accounts to apply for reinstatement, easing a policy that had imposed permanent bans.

The update covers channels taken down for spreading Covid-19 or election misinformation, Alphabet attorney Daniel Donovan wrote in a letter to United States House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan.

Such violations were previously punishable with lifetime removal.

“Today, YouTube’s Community Guidelines allow for a wider range of content regarding Covid and elections integrity,” Donovan wrote.

YouTube, owned by Google said on X that the initiative will start as a limited pilot program, available to a select group of creators and to channels removed under policies the platform has since retired.

The company noted the reinstatement program will launch soon.

Channels previously banned under those rules include ones linked to Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It remains unclear whether those channels will be restored.

In 2021, YouTube announced it would take down content spreading misinformation about all approved vaccines.

Donovan wrote that during the pandemic, former senior Biden administration officials urged the company to remove certain Covid-related videos that did not technically breach its policies.

He described that pressure as “unacceptable and wrong” in his letter.