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? 

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