YouTube has agreed to pay $22 million to settle lawsuits filed by Donald Trump after the Google subsidiary suspended his account following the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, according to a court document released Monday.

The online video site is the latest platform to reach an agreement with the American president to settle a dispute that began in July 2021, after Meta and X (formerly Twitter).

The US president posted a screenshot on his Truth Social network hailing "a MASSIVE victory" that "proves that censorship by 'Big Tech' has consequences." "YouTube SURRENDERS!" boasts the message, showing a photomontage of the president, all smiles and thumbs up, receiving a check from Neal Mohan, the platform's boss, in the White House gardens.

The head of state's lawyers indicated that the sum would be paid into a trust whose mission, among other things, is to finance the construction of a gigantic ballroom at the White House.

On January 12, 2021, YouTube suspended Donald Trump's account on the grounds that the former real estate developer had violated the platform's rules by calling for a physical protest against the 2020 presidential election result.

On January 6, hundreds of protesters stormed the Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden's victory, an event that shocked the United States and the world and resulted in the deaths of five people.

YouTube did not restore Donald Trump's account until March 2023.

"Capitulation"

Also accused by Donald Trump of having unfairly closed his account, Meta (Facebook) agreed at the end of January 2025 to pay 21 million dollars to avoid a lawsuit, imitated, a few weeks later, by X, to the tune of 10 million.

The Google subsidiary, which itself belongs to the Alphabet group, has not admitted any wrongdoing and has not committed to corrective action.

She thus avoided a trial, the date of which had not yet been set.

Media watchdog Media Matters calls YouTube's decision a "shameful and short-sighted capitulation."

"To submit without reason now is to encourage Trump and his efforts to stifle dissent by bringing media and online platforms into line," added Angelo Carusone, the president of the left-leaning association.

The series continues

Indeed, many legal experts have considered, since the summons, that Donald Trump's legal arguments were insufficient to consider a decision favorable to the president before a court.

Since YouTube, Meta and X are private companies, they said, nothing prevents them from regulating the content that is or is not published on their platforms, this principle taking precedence over that of a possible attack on freedom of expression.

In addition to Meta and X, the transaction with YouTube comes after amicable agreements between the American president and several media groups sued by Donald Trump.

In July, CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit related to a mid-campaign interview with former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump criticized the network for editing a passage of the interview in which the former vice president responded in an "incoherent" manner.

In December, ABC had already agreed to settle another dispute also initiated by the Republican billionaire, paying 15 million dollars.

As part of Monday's settlement, which still needs to be approved by a federal judge in Oakland, California, YouTube will also pay $2.5 million to other account holders who were also suspended after the January 6 events.

These include conservative figures Austen Fletcher and Naomi Wolf, who regularly spread conspiracy theories.