Google owner Alphabet today agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit that President Trump filed against YouTube in 2021. Trump sued YouTube over his account being suspended after Trump supporters’ January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Alphabet agreed to pay $22 million “to settle and resolve with Plaintiff Donald J. Trump… which he has directed to be contributed, on his behalf, to the Trust for the National Mall, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall, to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom,” a court filing said. Trump recently announced plans for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom.
The settlement notice, filed today in US District Court for the Northern District of California, said Alphabet will also pay $2.5 million to settle claims with plaintiffs the American Conservative Union, Andrew Baggiani, Austen Fletcher, Maryse Veronica Jean-Louis, Frank Valentine, Kelly Victory, and Naomi Wolf. Under the settlement, Alphabet admits no wrongdoing and the parties agreed to dismiss the case.
When contacted by Ars today, Google said it would not provide any comment beyond what is in the court filing. Trump was suspended from major social media platforms after the January 6, 2021, attack, and was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives for incitement of insurrection.
Meta settled a similar lawsuit in January this year, agreeing to pay $25 million overall, including $22 million toward Trump’s presidential library. In February, Elon Musk’s X agreed to a $10 million settlement.
“Google executives were eager to keep their settlement smaller than the one paid by rival Meta, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal wrote today.
