Former US President Donald Trump sued YouTube after his account was shut down, and YouTube decided to pay him $22 million to settle the ca...
Former US President Donald Trump sued YouTube after his account was shut down, and YouTube decided to pay him $22 million to settle the case.
The suspension came after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters fought violently with police to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election win.
The settlement was made public in a federal court filing in California on Monday. The $22 million will go to Trump's new building project at the White House, which will be run by a charity group called the Trust for the National Mall.
This nonprofit's main goal is to restore, protect, and improve the National Mall. The money raised will go toward building the White House State Ballroom. YouTube has decided to give $2.5 million to Trump and some of his allies, such as the American Conservative Union.
The history of the legal dispute
Trump said that YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., wrongly censored him by closing his account and making it harder for him to post videos. According to the original July 2021 lawsuit against YouTube and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, his lawyers said the suspension was based on "non-existent or broad, vague, and ever-shifting standards."
Because of "concerns about the ongoing potential for violence," YouTube stopped Trump from uploading videos on January 12, 2021. Both Facebook and Twitter did similar things to stop more trouble.
Responses and a Debate on Free Speech
The deal has made people in the US talk about their rights to free speech.
Legal experts pointed out that the First Amendment only limits what the government can do, not what private companies can do. This meant that Trump's claims would have a hard time in court.
In its defense, YouTube said in a brief filed in December 2021:
YouTube is not the government, and using its editing freedom on a private service does not violate Plaintiffs' First Amendment rights.
The settlement was attacked by the group Media Matters. The group's leader, Angelo Carusone, said:
"YouTube's giving up is embarrassing and lacks vision." Giving up now without a good reason will only help Trump in his efforts to silence criticism by putting pressure on the media and online platforms.