YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5m (£18.6m) to settle a lawsuit introduced by Donald Trump, filed after the video platform suspended his account within the wake of the 6 January assault on US Capitol.
The settlement from the video streaming large’s guardian firm Alphabet – which additionally owns Google – comes after social media websites X/Twitter and Facebook additionally agreed to pay Trump for suspending his accounts.
Trump had accused YouTube and different tech firms of political bias, claiming they’d unfairly censored conservative voices after the Capitol riot in 2021.
At the time of his suspension, social media firms stated that Trump risked inciting additional violence in Washington DC.
As a part of Monday’s settlement, YouTube pays $22m to the Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit group that’s aiming to boost $200m to construct a brand new ballroom on the White House.
Another $2.5m can be paid to different organisations and people who joined Trump’s lawsuit, together with the American Conservative Union.
YouTube is the most recent main platform to settle with the president.
In January, Facebook’s guardian firm Meta agreed to a $25m settlement – with $22m earmarked for Trump’s presidential library.
A month later, social media platform X – an organization that was bought by Trump ally Elon Musk in 2022 – settled for a reported $10m.
All of Mr Trump’s social media accounts have since been reinstated.
The settlements come as Silicon Valley has usually taken a extra conciliatory tone in direction of the president. The CEOs of Alphabet, Meta and X all sat within the entrance row for his inauguration, signalling a shift in relations between the Republican Party and the tech sector.
The social media giants have additionally taken measures to loosen content material moderation on their platforms which Republicans had claimed amounted to a violation of free speech.
Last week, YouTube stated it deliberate to revive a number of accounts that had been banned for repeatedly making false claims about Covid and the 2020 presidential election.
“YouTube values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes that these creators have extensive reach and play an important role in civic discourse,” the corporate wrote to a Republican-controlled congressional committee, explaining the choice.
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