"YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24.5m to settle lawsuit over account suspension" 30 September 2025

Trump had filed the suit against YouTube and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, alleging that the platform had “accumulated an unprecedented concentration of power, market share, and ability to dictate our nation’s public discourse.” YouTube said it suspended Trump’s channel because it had violated the website’s policies against inciting violence. Because of the settlement, the case is now dismissed. Google did not immediately return a request for comment.

The news comes just a week after YouTube announced that it would allow creators who were once banned for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 US presidential election to be reinstated....

Facebook-parent company Meta settled a similar lawsuit with Trump in January for $25m, and social media platform X, previously Twitter, settled another for $10m in February... For the YouTube settlement, Trump has directed $22m of the payment to restoring and preserving the National Mall and supporting construction of a White House ballroom...

The three cases were first brought by Trump lawyer and ally, John Coale, according to the Wall Street Journal… Coale told the Journal that Trump’s return to the White House was instrumental in reaching the slew of settlements with tech companies, saying: “If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years."...

In an email to the Guardian, Coale said Trump was an “ideal client”. “Glad it and the others I filled [sic] for DJT in July or [sic] 2021 ended to the tune of 60mil,” Coale added. “We got $$$ and changed tech behavior, I believe.”

YouTube first suspended Trump’s channel for seven days on 12 January 2021, after he posted a video saying the speech he made to his supporters on January 6 before the Capitol riot was “totally appropriate”... The company then extended the ban without an end date...