MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Google’s YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump over the suspension of his account in 2021. The account was put on hold after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Documents filed in federal court in California say that a large part of the settlement—$22 million—will go to the Trust for the National Mall. The rest of the money will be split up among other litigants, such as the American Conservative Union.
The deal is the most recent in a string of agreements between Trump and big tech companies over suspending his accounts. Meta Platforms paid $25 million in January to resolve a lawsuit over his ban from Facebook. Elon Musk’s X (then known as Twitter) paid $10 million to settle a similar claim.
The court papers make it clear that the settlement does not mean that Google is admitting fault. A Google spokeswoman confirmed the payment but didn’t say anything further about it.
The settlement was made public about a week before a court hearing with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California, on October 6. This ended the legal fight.