YouTube to pay Trump $37.3 million over January 6 account suspension

Google’s YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over his 2021 account suspension following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

The full amount will be $US24.5 million ($A37.3 million).

According to documents filed in federal court in California, $US22 million ($A33 million) of the settlement will be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall to help pay for the construction of the White House State Ballroom. The rest will go to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union.

Google is the latest big tech company to settle lawsuits brought by Trump.

In January, Meta Platforms agreed to pay $US25 million ($A38 million) to settle a lawsuit over his 2021 suspension from Facebook.

Elon Musk’s X agreed to settle a similar lawsuit brought against the company then known as Twitter for $US10 million ($A15 million).

ABC News agreed to pay $US15 million ($A23 million) in December toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E Jean Carroll.

And in July, Paramount decided to pay Trump $US16 million ($A24 million) to settle a lawsuit regarding editing at CBS’ 60 Minutes news program.

Google declined to comment on the reasons for the settlement, but Trump’s YouTube account has been restored since 2023. The settlement is will barely dent Alphabet, which has a market value of nearly $US3 trillion ($A4.6 trillion), an increase of about $US600 billion ($A912 billion), or 25 per cent, since Trump’s return to the White House.

The settlement does not constitute an admission of liability, the filing says. Google confirmed the settlement but declined to comment beyond it.

The disclosure of the settlement came a week before a scheduled Monday court hearing to discuss the case with US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in Oakland, California.