YouTube to Pay President Trump $24.5 Million in Jan. 6 Lawsuit Settlement
YouTube to Pay President Trump $24.5 Million in Jan. 6 Lawsuit Settlement
YouTube has agreed to pay President Donald Trump $24.5 million to resolve a 2021 lawsuit alleging censorship following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Federal court papers filed this Monday reveal the settlement, marking another significant payout by a tech giant to the president.
A substantial portion of the settlement, $22 million, will be directed by YouTube parent company Google towards the construction of a $200 million Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom at the White House. The Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit, has been designated to finance these renovations, according to the settlement documents.
This agreement follows a trend of tech companies settling with Trump in the wake of the Capitol riots. Earlier this January, Meta paid the president $25 million concerning Facebook’s and Instagram’s decisions to suspend his accounts post-Jan. 6. Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) also settled similar allegations for $10 million.
Critics, including free speech experts, have largely dismissed the legal credibility of Trump’s trio of lawsuits, noting that First Amendment protections typically apply to government actions, not private companies’ content moderation. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, called the YouTube settlement “straight influence-peddling” and stated it showed “not a sign of any legal merit.”
The payout comes just days after YouTube announced the reinstatement of accounts previously banned for spreading COVID-19 and election-related falsehoods—a move signaling a broader loosening of social media misinformation rules since Trump took office. Notable accounts reinstated include those of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, current Department of Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.
Legal protections like Section 230 grant tech platforms broad discretion in content moderation. The settlements represent a striking reversal for Silicon Valley, which has historically defended its right to police its platforms. Beyond the White House ballroom, $2.5 million from the settlement will be distributed to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and author Naomi Wolf, who faced suspensions for sharing unfounded COVID vaccine theories.
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