YouTube agrees to pay $24.5m to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump in a court filling, after the video platform suspended his account over Capitol riots, which explains the January 6 attack on U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Trump had filed the lawsuit against YouTube and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichari, alleging that his channel was wrongly suspended and the channel had “accumulated an unprecedented concentration of power, market share and ability to dictate our nation’s public discourse.”
YouTube, explains that it had suspended Trump’s channel because it had violated the website polices against inciting violence.
In an ongoing litigation, Google-owned platform, has agreed to pay settlements with U.S. President, ending a prolonged legal clash over the suspension of his channel in 2021.
The ban, was imposed after the Capitol riots and it was part of a wider move by social media companies that cited the risk of further unrest.
The online video sharing platform further blames the account suspensions on pressure from Joe Biden.
As reported by Bloomberg, lawsuit lawyer who is representing Trump’s case informed, “I’m happy, the President is happy to get this resolved, Google which owns YouTube did not offer a statement”.
As part of the settlement, YouTube will pay $22 million to the Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit group that is aiming to raise $200m to build a new ballroom at the White House.
Moreover, $2.5m funds will be paid to other organizations and individuals who joined Trump's lawsuit, including the American Conservative Union.
Furthermore, the social media giants have also taken measures to loosen content moderation on their platforms which republicans had claimed as amounted to a violation of free speech.
Additionally, the video-platform said it had planned to restore several accounts that had been banned for repeatedly making false claims about Covid and the 2020 presidential election.
"YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse," informs YouTube to Republican-controlled congressional committee.
YouTube, first suspended Trump’s channel for seven days on 12 January 2021, after he posted a video saying the speech he made to his supporters on January 6 before the Capitol riot was “totally appropriate”.
The video platform said it suspended the channel over “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence” and the company then extended the ban without an end date.
Moreover, in March 2023 YouTube reinstated Trump’s channel after Trump announced his bid for his second Presidency, saying it “carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing that with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”
Within hours of getting his channel back, Trump posted: “I’M BACK!” accompanied by an 11-second video of him talking at a rally saying: “Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business. Complicated.”
The case against YouTube has been closed in 2023, however Trump’s lawyers filed to reopen the case after he won the presidency.