NEW YORK: In a significant legal development, President Donald Trump and video platform YouTube have reached a $22 million settlement over a lawsuit filed after the company suspended his account following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The online video platform, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, becomes the latest in a series of Big Tech firms to settle with the former president after he launched legal challenges against his broad deplatforming in the wake of the Capitol upheaval. The settlement, announced in a federal court filing on Monday, underscores the complex and often fraught relationship between political power and corporate media control.
Funds Earmarked for White House Construction
The settlement details reveal a specific destination for the $22 million: it is to be funneled through a non-profit called Trust for the National Mall to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom. The Trust is “dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall.” Furthermore, YouTube has agreed to payments of $2.5 million to a host of other Trump allies, including the American Conservative Union.
The Shadow of January 6 and Deplatforming
Major social media platforms removed or suspended Trump after January 6 amid widespread concerns that he would incite further violence with his unproven claims of voter fraud following his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. YouTube specifically blocked Trump from uploading new content on January 12, 2021, citing “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence,” an action taken in parallel with Facebook and Twitter (now X).
The 79-year-old Republican subsequently took the companies to court, claiming he was wrongfully censored. His lawyers maintained in the original complaint that he was removed under “non-existent or broad, vague and ever-shifting standards.”
The action against Trump’s posting privileges came after more than 140 police officers were injured in hours of brutal clashes with pro-Trump rioters who sought to block Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
Free Speech and Corporate Strategy
Legal experts have long viewed Trump’s claims against the tech giants as legally shaky, emphasizing that the First Amendment of the US Constitution shields the government, not a private actor, from restricting speech. In its December 2021 rebuttal, YouTube explicitly stated it “is not a state actor and its exercise of editorial discretion over its private service does not implicate Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.”
However, this wave of settlements is occurring as tech and media companies await critical decisions from Washington on major matters affecting their businesses. Crucial questions facing YouTube and Google/Alphabet include an upcoming antitrust trial where government lawyers are seeking a breakup of the search engine giant’s ad technology business.
The journalism watchdog group Media Matters was vocal in its condemnation of the settlement, calling YouTube’s decision “shameful and shortsighted.” The group’s president, Angelo Carusone, warned that “Needlessly folding now will only help encourage Trump’s efforts to stifle dissent by bringing media and online platforms to heel.”
This settlement follows similar accords, including Elon Musk’s X settling for about $10 million in a separate Trump lawsuit, and Meta agreeing to a $25 million payment in January, days after Trump’s inauguration. The growing list of settlements underscores the strategic calculus by corporations navigating a complicated political landscape.
