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YouTube joins Big Tech cowards in caving to Trump
YouTube is the latest major tech company to capitulate to President Donald
Trump.
On Monday evening, the Google-owned video platform agreed to pay a $24.5
million settlement to Trump and others suspended after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack
on the U.S. Capitol. YouTube froze Trump’s account in the riot’s aftermath,
blocking him from posting new videos and warning his content could spark more
violence. Trump sued months later, accusing YouTube and other social media
giants of censorship and wrongful bans.
Nearly the entire settlement—$22 million—will go to Trump. According to The
New York Times, the president has directed the money to the Trust for the
National Mall and to the construction of his gaudy $200 million White House
ballroom, which the administration says will be funded by Trump and “other
patriot donors.”
The remaining $2.5 million will be divided among other plaintiffs, including
anti-vaccine writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union, which
organizes the infamous Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC.
“If he had not been reelected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years,”
Trump lawyer John P. Coale told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported
the deal. “It was his reelection that made the difference.”
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It’s the latest in a string of unsettling legal victories for Trump, who since
last fall’s election has pulled in more than $80 million from settlements with
Big Tech and major media companies.
The YouTube deal also closes the loop on a trio of lawsuits Trump filed
against social media platforms after leaving office in 2021. Meta, the parent
company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed in January to cough up $25 million,
while Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, cut a $10 million check in
February.
Media companies have caved as well. In July, Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16
million to settle his frivolous lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes”
interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. In December, ABC News paid
$15 million to settle a defamation case involving host George Stephanopoulos.
Trump clearly sees these settlements as a vindication. His administration has
led pressure campaigns against institutions and individuals it views as
hostile—from law firms that backed Democratic causes to prominent universities
and media figures like late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. Earlier this month, Trump
sued The New York Times for $15 billion in damages, though the case was quickly
dismissed. Other lawsuits of his, like one against the publisher of the Wall
Street Journal, is still winding its way through court.
YouTube’s settlement lands at a precarious time for its parent company,
Alphabet. The Justice Department is pressing to break up the tech giant’s
advertising business after a federal judge ruled this spring that Google holds
an illegal monopoly. A federal court is now hearing testimony on what penalties
the company could face.
Alphabet recently beat a similar challenge to its online-search dominance. In
the meantime, top executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai, have been working to
smooth relations with the Trump White House, even attending a dinner with the
president this month to talk about tech and artificial intelligence.
At the same time, YouTube has been quietly rolling back moderation rules. Last
week, just before news of the settlement broke, the company announced it would
reinstate content creators previously banned for spreading misinformation about
COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election.
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For Trump, the YouTube settlement is proof that his yearslong fight with
Silicon Valley is quite literally paying off. His lawsuits against the tech
giants had largely stalled before his return to the White House—a federal judge
dismissed his case against Twitter in 2022, and the suits against Meta and
YouTube were effectively put on hold. But after his reelection, settlements
came fast.
For Alphabet, $24.5 million is pocket change. YouTube alone reported nearly
$10 billion in ad revenue in the second quarter of this year. But the political
cost is harder to measure. Settling with Trump makes YouTube the latest major
platform to bow out of what could have been a long and ugly fight, one that
risked further antagonizing a president already eager to punish tech and media
foes.
Another day, another tech giant bending the knee. When will it end?
Click here to check out this story on DailyKos.com.
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