YouTube, similar to Meta and X, is financially settling Trump’s litigation regarding content moderation choices post the January 6th Capitol insurrection.
YouTube, similar to Meta and X, is financially settling Trump’s litigation regarding content moderation choices post the January 6th Capitol insurrection.
YouTube has reached a settlement in the lawsuit initiated by President Donald Trump against the platform in 2021, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Trump had launched extensive lawsuits against Google-owned YouTube, Meta (then Facebook), and X (then Twitter) after being suspended from their services, and now all three firms have come to terms with the president.
YouTube is set to pay $24.5 million, of which $22 million will support the Trust for the National Mall nonprofit to aid “in constructing the White House State Ballroom,” according to the settlement paperwork, while $2.5 million will be allocated to other claimants. This total settlement is marginally less than the $25 million Meta agreed to pay in January, with the WSJ indicating that Google executives were “keen to maintain their settlement lower than that of competitor Meta.” X settled for approximately $10 million in February.
Trump was barred from uploading new videos in January 2021 following the Capitol attack on January 6th, with YouTube stating “risks of ongoing potential violence” as the reason. YouTube removed the restrictions in March 2023, explaining that it “carefully assessed the remaining threat of real-world violence, balancing the need for voters to hear equally from major national candidates leading up to an election.”
