What just happened? YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it by Donald Trump in October 2021. The president filed the suit after his account was suspended following the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
YouTube's move means that all three of the platforms that Trump sued over his suspensions in the wake of January 6 – the other two being Facebook/Meta and X/Twitter – have now settled. Trump argued that the suspensions were an infringement of his First Amendment rights.
Of the $24.5 million YouTube will pay in its settlement, $22 million will be paid to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. It will go toward restoring and preserving the National Mall and supporting construction of the White House ballroom, according to court documents. The ballroom is expected to cost around $200 million.
The remaining $2.5 million will be shared among other plaintiffs in the suit whose channels were also banned.
Trump's channel was suspended by YouTube on January 12, 2021. The Google-owned company waited a few days longer to implement its ban than Meta and Twitter, which handed down their own bans over fears of a risk to public safety and the incitement of further violence.
YouTube's suspension was initially set for a minimum of seven days for policy violations, but that was extended to "indefinitely" due to "concerns about the ongoing potential for violence."
Meta agreed to pay Trump $25 million at the end of January 2025 to settle his lawsuit, with most of the money going toward Trump's presidential library fund. The social network had already made several moves to apparently win favor with the president that month, including removing third-party fact-checkers and diversity programs and relaxing content moderation on many topics.
X, meanwhile, settled its suit for $10 million in February.
Trump's deputy special envoy to Ukraine and Belarus, John Coale – the lawyer who brought the cases – told The Wall Street Journal that it was his client's re-election that led to the settlements. "If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years."
YouTube lifted Trump's ban in March 2023 – the last of the three sued platforms to do so – after he had announced plans to run for a second presidency. The case was closed that same year, but lawyers filed to reopen it after he won the election. The cases against X/Twitter and Meta had also been dismissed and stayed, respectively, before Trump's lawyers won appeals to overturn the rulings.
YouTube settles Donald Trump lawsuit over 2021 account suspension for $24.5 million
