YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump, with the majority of the funds being directed toward the construction of a new White House ballroom, a move legal experts decry as “influence-peddling” rather than a settlement based on legal merit.
WASHINGTON — YouTube will pay $24.5 million to former President Donald Trump to resolve a 2021 lawsuit that alleged he was censored when the platform suspended his account following the January 6 Capitol riot, according to federal court documents filed Monday.
The settlement is the latest in a series of payouts from major tech companies sued by Trump in the wake of the Capitol attack. In January, Meta paid the former president $25 million over suspensions on Facebook and Instagram, while Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) paid out $10 million.
According to the settlement filing, Google, YouTube’s parent company, will dedicate $22 million of the total to a specific project: the construction of a new, $200 million Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom at the White House. The documents state a nonprofit, the Trust for the National Mall, will manage the renovations. The new ballroom is planned to be approximately 90,000 square feet. An additional $2.5 million from the settlement will go to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and author Naomi Wolf.
Legal experts have consistently argued that the suits lacked credible legal grounds, as the First Amendment restricts government censorship, not the content moderation decisions of private companies. The rapid settlements have drawn sharp criticism.
“This is straight influence-peddling,” said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University and an expert on online speech. “This YouTube settlement is not a sign of any legal merit.” He added that but for “an attempt to curry favor with the president,” there is “absolutely no reason to believe Trump would have gotten anywhere with these suits.”
The payouts mark a stark reversal for Silicon Valley, which has long defended its right to police its platforms under legal protections like Section 230. The YouTube settlement comes just days after the platform announced it was reinstating accounts previously banned for spreading COVID-19 and election misinformation, including those of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The White House and Google did not return requests for comment.