YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump in 2021, which alleged that the platform mistakenly suspended his channel following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th. This Google subsidiary joins a growing list of tech companies that have paid the former president millions for previous actions regarding his account.
Trump’s legal action targets YouTube and Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai, claiming that the platform has amassed an “unprecedented concentration of power, market share, and influence over public discourse in our country.” YouTube stated that Trump’s channels were suspended for violating its policy against inciting violence. As part of the settlement, the case is being dismissed. Google has not responded to requests for comment.
This development follows YouTube’s recent announcement that it would permit creators previously banned for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and the 2020 US presidential election to return. The platform highlighted its commitment to celebrating conservative voices and condemned account suspensions influenced by pressure from Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s parent company Meta settled a similar lawsuit with Trump for $25 million in January, along with a $10 million settlement for the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in February. Most of the funds from the Meta agreement are directed to Trump’s Presidential Library Fund. In the case of the YouTube settlement, Trump has allocated $22 million to restore and save the White House ballroom, which has a projected construction cost of around $200 million, as per documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
These lawsuits were initially filed by Trump’s attorney and ally, John Cole. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on this matter. Cole mentioned to the Journal that Trump’s potential return to the White House could facilitate further settlements with tech companies. Cole is currently serving as Trump’s deputy envoy to Ukraine and Belarus.
In correspondence with the Guardian, Cole described Trump as the “ideal client.”
“I am thrilled with the outcomes we’ve managed since July 2021, especially bringing in $60 million in settlements,” Cole stated. “We’ve secured funds and initiated changes in corporate behavior that I believe in.”
Although the lawsuit against YouTube was closed in 2023, Trump’s legal team sought to revive it following a presidential victory. Previously, all three cases faced significant legal challenges. In 2022, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Twitter, while the cases against Meta and YouTube lingered, with the latter temporarily closed. Nevertheless, Trump’s attorneys have revived the case with a complaint challenging each prior ruling.
YouTube first suspended Trump’s channel for seven days on January 12, 2021, after he posted a video addressing supporters prior to the Capitol riots, which was labeled “fully inappropriate.” YouTube cited concerns about potential continued violence as the reason for the suspension. The ban was subsequently extended indefinitely.
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In March 2023, shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency once again, YouTube reinstated Trump’s channel, expressing that it had carefully weighed the ongoing risks of real-world violence against the necessity of providing voters the opportunity to hear from key candidates leading up to the election.
Within hours of reclaiming his channel, Trump announced, “I’m back!” accompanying it with an 11-second video from a rally where he remarked, “I’m sorry for the wait. It’s a complicated process.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
