YouTube to pay millions to settle Trump lawsuit

Meta and X agreed to similar payments with the president’s lawyers earlier this year

YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump over his suspension by the video hosting platform in the aftermath of the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2020, court papers show.

YouTube, Facebook and X blocked the president’s accounts in response to his supporters storming the US Capitol Building after his Democratic rival Joe Biden won the election. Trump sued the social media platforms over the ban, with legal experts warning at the time that his chances of winning were slim.

However, earlier this year, Meta, which owns Facebook, and X agreed to settle lawsuits with the president, paying out $25 million and $10 million, respectively.

Alphabet-owned YouTube joined them on Tuesday, with the court documents seen by AP, CNN and other outlets, saying that the company will pay pay $22 million to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall “to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom” and another $2.5 million to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union NGO.

Trump expressed his satisfaction with the settlement on his Truth Social platform, which he launched in 2022 following his being banned by Silicon Valley, saying: “YouTube SURRENDERS… This MASSIVE victory proves Big Tech censorship has consequences… Trump fought for free speech and WON!”

The president called upon his 10.8 million followers to “repost if ALL banned conservatives should be paid.”

Social media platforms have appeared to be more accommodating to Trump during his second term, with X owner Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos among guests at his inauguration in January.

The platforms have also moved to roll back some of their content moderation policies, which had been described as censorship by the Republicans.