YouTube Agrees to Pay 34.3 Billion Won Settlement in 'Trump Account Suspension Lawsuit'

Experts: Settlement Reached for Managerial, Not Legal, Reasons

Google's video platform YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million (approximately 34.3 billion won) to settle a lawsuit filed by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2021, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on September 29 (local time).

This lawsuit was related to YouTube's suspension of President Trump's account in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot, which was sparked by his supporters refusing to accept the results of the presidential election. YouTube later restored President Trump's account in March 2023.

AFP Yonhap News

With this settlement, YouTube became the last of the three social networking service (SNS) platforms sued by Trump immediately after leaving office to reach an agreement. Previously, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, settled for $25 million, while X (formerly Twitter) settled for $10 million.

Sources said that Google executives wanted to pay a lower settlement amount than their competitor Meta.

According to court documents, $22 million of the settlement will be delivered to the nonprofit organization "Trust for the National Mall," which was established to build a Mar-a-Lago-style banquet hall at the White House. The remainder will be distributed to the co-plaintiffs.

John P. Cole, President Trump's attorney and close aide, stated, "President Trump's return to power played a decisive role in resolving the lawsuit," adding, "If he had not been re-elected, we would have been in court for a thousand years."

Legal experts have pointed out that the legal grounds for President Trump's lawsuits against the three SNS platforms were weak. In May 2022, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against the former Twitter, and later the lawsuits against Meta and YouTube were also dismissed. However, the atmosphere changed after President Trump won last year's presidential election.

Mark Graber, a professor at the University of Maryland Law School, noted that the reason for the settlements was not legal but managerial. He explained that major companies regulated by the Trump administration have a strong business incentive to resolve legal issues, saying, "For Meta or Google, $25 million is just lunch money."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.