YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by United States President Donald Trump challenging the platform's decision to suspend his account after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Court documents filed on September 29 reveal that the settlement brings to a close the last major case Trump initiated against a social media company for content moderation actions taken in the riot's aftermath.

Of the total settlement, $22 million will be directed to the Trust for the National Mall at Trump's instruction, earmarked for constructing a new White House State Ballroom. The remaining $2.5 million will be divided among other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and author Naomi Wolf, who joined Trump's suit alleging political bias in suspensions by YouTube and other tech firms.

YouTube initially suspended Trump's channel on January 12, 2021, citing concerns that his posts risked inciting further violence in Washington, D.C. The platform removed a video and barred new uploads until assessing that the risk of real-world harm had diminished. Trump's ability to upload content was restored in 2023 following an internal review.

The latest agreement follows similar resolutions earlier this year with other major platforms. In January, Meta Platforms settled a related lawsuit for $25 million, allocating roughly $22 million toward Trump's planned presidential library fund. In February, X (formerly Twitter) agreed to a $10 million settlement after Trump argued his suspension violated his free speech rights.

YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc., confirmed the settlement but declined to comment further. The court filing specifies that the payment "shall not be regarded as an acknowledgment of liability or wrongdoing" by YouTube or its parent company.

Legal experts note that private platforms generally have broad discretion under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to moderate content without liability. Nevertheless, Trump's high-profile suits have prompted costly settlements, underscoring the complex intersection of platform policies, political speech, and legal strategy.

The settlement filing appears just one week before a scheduled October 6 hearing before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, where any remaining issues in the case would have been addressed. With YouTube's agreement, Trump's challenges to post-2020 election suspensions by major social media platforms have been resolved through multimillion-dollar settlements, shifting the spotlight back to how tech companies manage political content under public and congressional scrutiny.

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Donald trump, Youtube, Lawsuit