Alphabet’s YouTube has decided to settle a lawsuit by paying out a sum of $24.5 million. This lawsuit was filed by former President Donald Trump in response to the suspension of his account after the January 2021 events at the U.S. Capitol. The court documents confirming this were made public on Monday.
This development follows earlier reports that Google is, in fact, the final member of the three major tech companies to settle the lawsuits Trump initiated in July 2021. These lawsuits accused them of suppressing conservative viewpoints without proper justification. Meta, previously Facebook, and now branded as X, formerly Twitter, are the other two corporations implicated, along with Alphabet’s Google and their respective CEOs.
Meta and X had previously reached settlements with Trump earlier this year. The details of the YouTube settlement indicate that $22 million will be directed to the Trust for the National Mall. This nonprofit organization is reportedly involved in the construction of a $200 million ballroom in the White House, a project spearheaded by Trump.
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The construction work on this 90,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed well before January 2029, the end of Trump’s hypothetical four-year term. The remaining settlement amount is to be distributed amongst other plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union and U.S. author Naomi Wolf.
While YouTube has agreed to pay the settlement, it does not admit any wrongdoing, nor does it plan to make any product or policy changes as part of the agreement. It’s worth noting that Trump’s YouTube account was not deleted in 2021, but rather suspended from uploading new content. The account was fully restored in 2023.
For comparison, it has been reported that Meta paid approximately $25 million and X paid $10 million earlier this year to settle analogous lawsuits filed by Trump. A significant portion of Meta’s settlement, $22 million, has been allocated towards a fund for Trump’s future presidential library in Miami.
And that’s the way it is. This situation raises important questions about the delicate balance between freedom of speech and the responsibility of tech giants in moderating content on their platforms. The fact that these settlements were reached without an admission of guilt or changes in policy by the companies involved adds to the complexity of the issue.