YouTube has reached a $24.5 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump sued Google-owned YouTube, along with Meta (then Facebook) and X (then Twitter), after being suspended from the platforms following the January 6th Capitol attack. All three companies have now reached settlements with Trump.
Under the agreement, $22 million will be directed to the Trust for the National Mall, earmarked to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom, while $2.5 million will go to other plaintiffs. The amount is slightly less than the $25 million Meta agreed to pay in January.
The WSJ reports that Google executives were “eager to keep their settlement smaller than the one paid by rival Meta.” X previously settled for about $10 million in February.
Trump was suspended from uploading new content on YouTube in January 2021, with the platform citing “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence.” The suspension was lifted in March 2023, after YouTube said it had weighed the risks of real-world harm against the importance of giving voters equal access to major political candidates ahead of elections.
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