YouTube has reached a settlement with former President Donald Trump, agreeing to pay $24.5 million to resolve a legal challenge over the platform’s suspension of his account, according to a CNBC report.
The settlement “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault,” on behalf of the defendants or related parties, according to a filing on Monday from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Trump sued YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in mid-2021, after the companies suspended his accounts on their platforms over concerns related to the incitement of violence.
Since Trump won a second term in November and returned to the White House in January, the tech companies have been settling their disputes with the president. Facebook-parent Meta said in January that it would pay $25 million to settle its lawsuit with Trump. The following month, Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, agreed to settle its Trump-related case for roughly $10 million.
In August, several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan expressing their concern over a possible settlement with the president.
The senators said in the letter that they worried such an action would be part of a “quid-pro-quo arrangement to avoid full accountability for violating federal competition, consumer protection, and labor laws, circumstances that could result in the company running afoul of federal bribery laws.”
CBCN
