YouTube to pay $24.5m in Trump lawsuit settlement over account suspension

YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who sued the platform after his account was suspended following the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

The settlement, reached with YouTube’s parent company Alphabet, comes after similar payouts from other tech giants. In January, Meta (Facebook’s parent) agreed to a $25m settlement, while X (formerly Twitter) paid $10m the following month.

Under the agreement, $22m will go to the Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit raising funds for a new White House ballroom. The remaining $2.5m will be distributed among other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union.

Trump and his allies had long argued that YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter engaged in politically motivated censorship by silencing conservative voices. At the time, the platforms defended their suspensions as necessary to prevent further violence.

Since then, relations between Silicon Valley and Trump appear to have warmed. All major platforms have reinstated his accounts, and their CEOs were notably seated in the front row at his inauguration earlier this year.

In parallel, the platforms have loosened moderation rules, with YouTube recently announcing plans to restore accounts banned for misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 U.S. election.