YouTube agreed to pay $ 22 million to end the procedures initiated by Donald Trump after the suspension of his account for the Google subsidiary, after the assault of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a judicial document published on Monday, September 29.
The online video site is the last platform to agree with the US president to resolve a litigation initiated in July 2021, after finishing and X (ex-twitter). The lawyers of the Head of State indicated that the sum would be donated to a trust whose mission is to finance the construction of a gigantic ball in the White House.
On January 12, 2021, YouTube had suspended Donald Trump’s account on the argument that the former real estate developer had violated the platform regulation calling physically playing the result of the 2020 presidential elections.
On January 6, hundreds of protesters broke into the Capitol to protest against the approval of the victory of Joe Biden, an event that had shocked the United States and the world and caused five people. YouTube had only restored Donald Trump’s account until March 2023.
“Parent and mysterious capitulation”
Also accused by Donald Trump of having unfairly closed his account, goal (Facebook) agreed at the end of January 2025 to pay $ 21 million to avoid a trial, imitated, a few weeks later, for X, up to 10 million.
The subsidiary of Google, which belongs to the Alphabet Group, has not recognized any damage and has not committed to corrective action. Therefore, a trial is avoided, whose date had not yet been solved.
The Media Media Observatory considers that in YouTube’s decision it is a “shameful and mysterious capitulation.”
Many lawyers have estimated, since the citation, that Donald Trump’s legal arguments were insufficient to consider a favorable decision for the president in the Court.
YouTube, goal or X are private companies, they said, nothing prevents them from regulating the content that is published or not on their platforms, this principle prevails in that of a possible freedom of expression.
The series continues
In addition to goal and X, the transaction with YouTube occurs after friendly agreements between the US president and several media groups pursued by Donald Trump.
In July, CBS promised to pay $ 16 million to close an interview with the former Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, Kamala Harris, in the countryside. Donald Trump reproached the chain for having published a transition from the interview in which the former vice president responded in an “incoherent” way. In December, ABC had already agreed to liquidate another litigation also initiated by the Republican billionaire, paying $ 15 million.
As part of Monday’s commitment, which is still validated by a federal judge of Oakland in California, YouTube will also pay $ 2.5 million to other holders of accounts also suspended after the events of January 6. In particular, there are conservative personalities Austen Fletcher and Naomi Wolf, which regularly transmit conspiracy theories.
Source: BFM TV
