Google will pay $24.5m to settle a legal dispute with US president Donald Trump, ending a long-running legal battle.
It becomes the latest US tech firm to settle legal disputes with Trump, which were launched following the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021, where Trump alleged censorship when his accounts were banned. Claims against Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) were already settled for $10m and $25m respectively.
Trump’s claim against Youtube was that it amounted to legal censorship when he was blocked from posting on his Youtube channel following the Capitol riots.
According to a Bloomberg report, John Coale, a Trump lawyer, said: “I’m happy, the president is happy to get this resolved.”
Coale told the Wall Street Journal: “If [Trump] had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for 1,000 years.”
The settlement comes at a time Google is involved in antitrust battles with the US government.
Senator concerns
In August, US senators aired their concerns over the settlements between Trump and the tech firms which they said that “look like payoffs to president Trump”.
In a letter sent in August to Google and YouTube CEOs Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, US senators voiced concerns over settlements between Trump and social media platforms X and Facebook.
The senators wrote: “We write regarding the possibility that Google subsidiary YouTube may be preparing to settle a dubious lawsuit filed by president Trump, in exchange for favourable action by his administration. We have criticised actions by other corporations that look like payoffs to president Trump, and now we are concerned that Google could be engaged in similar behaviour.”
According to reports, $22m of Trump’s settlement with Google/YouTube will go toward construction of a new ballroom in the White House, with the remainder going to Trump’s fellow plaintiffs.
Since regaining the presidency, Trump has caused uncertainty in the global tech sector with decisions including controversial tariffs and cut backs to cyber security. In August, Trump’s government announced 100% tariffs on semiconductors imported into the US, unless firms make substantial commitments to build out US-based manufacturing.
Meanwhile, the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is likely to have its funding heavily cut with significant employee reductions, according to budget proposals unveiled by Trump’s administration.
In a written statement, the White House said Trump was “laser-focused on eliminating …weaponised rot” in the American government as he laid out a series of cuts to multiple agencies.
“The Budget eliminates CISA’s disinformation offices and programmes that functioned as a hub in the censorship industrial complex, conspiring against the First Amendment rights of president Trump and his supporters,” the statement read.
