After YouTube suspended its account in response to the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the platform agreed to pay $ 24.5% to settle the lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump.
According to a court filing on Monday, YouTube,  , which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, will donate $ 22 million to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit that is overseeing a $ 200 million project to build a ballroom at the White House.
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According to the US District Court for the Northern District of California filing, the remaining $2.5 million will be distributed to other plaintiffs in the case, including Naomi Wolf, an author and the American Conservative Union.
According to the filing, the settlement was reached with the sole intention of compromising disputed claims and avoiding the costs and risks of additional litigation because it does not contain any allegations of YouTube’s misconduct.
YouTube, whose advertising revenues totaled nearly $9.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025, is receiving a relatively small sum of money.
Following the January 6 attack, which was carried out by Trump supporters who falsely claimed the 2020 election had been “stolen,” Meta Platforms and X earlier this year agreed to multimillion dollar payouts to settle his accusations that he was unfairly censored.
The three cases were brought before John P. Coale, a Trump ally and lawyer, who expressed his satisfaction with the outcome.
Coale responded to Al Jazeera, “Very much so.” “As are the other plaintiffs and the president,” the statement reads.
Coale claimed that the three cases totaled $60 million.
He said, “We think the behavior has changed.”
Big Tech has resurrected his administration after de-platforming Trump over fears that his false claims about the 2020 presidential election were causing violence.
At a White House dinner earlier this month, tech CEOs including Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Tim Cook of Apple praised Trump and praised his administration’s efforts to develop artificial intelligence.
Additionally, media outlets have already paid out substantial sums to resolve Trump’s legal claims.
According to Trump, Paramount Global announced in July that it had agreed to pay $ 16 million to disprove its claim that CBS News’ 60 Minutes program had fabricated interviews with Vice President Kamala Harris.
In response to accusations that its anchor, George Stephanopoulos, had defame Trump, ABC News agreed to donate $ 15 million to his library in December.
According to Timothy Koskie, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney’s School of Media and Communications, YouTube’s settlement set off efforts to regulate content on social media platforms.
We simply can’t expect consistent treatment from anyone who seeks to benefit from this administration, Koskie said, “Unfortunately, with the eroding of a rules-based order.”
“That will include a sizable number of businesses that we interact with daily, particularly, but not exclusively, the platforms,” the company said. This vigorously empowers it in a particularly secluded manner rather than removing censorship.
