YouTube will pay $24.5 million to resolve a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump over the suspension of his account after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, according to a federal court filing on Monday.
The settlement, submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, stated that the agreement “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault” by YouTube or related parties.
Trump sued YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter in mid-2021 after the platforms banned him for allegedly inciting violence. Since returning to the White House in January following his reelection, the president has seen each case move toward resolution.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, agreed in January to pay $25 million to settle its legal dispute with Trump. The following month, Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, agreed to a $10 million settlement.
The deals have sparked criticism from some lawmakers. In August, Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan warning against a potential settlement. They expressed concern that such agreements could amount to a “quid-pro-quo arrangement to avoid full accountability for violating federal competition, consumer protection, and labor laws, circumstances that could result in the company running afoul of federal bribery laws.”
The settlement ends one of Trump’s most high-profile legal battles with Silicon Valley companies that took action against him after the Capitol attack.
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