YouTube will pay Trump $24.5m over account suspension

YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by president Donald Trump for suspending his account following the riots at the US Capitol in January 2021.

The US Capitol in Washington DC was attacked by Trump supporters in an attempted coup two months after he had been defeated in the 2020 presidential election.

Between the 7-12 of January 2021, Facebook, Twitter and Meta also suspended Trump’s account citing the risks of further incitement of violence.

Trump consequently sued them in a lawsuit accusing them of censoring conservative voices.

Following the news of YouTube’s payout, Trump posted on TruthSocial on Tuesday: “YouTube surrenders!” calling the account suspension an ‘illegal ban’.

In the post, Trump added that he had “fought for free speech and won.”

“This massive victory proves BigTech censorship has consequences,” it continued. “Every shadowbanned patriot deserves justice.”A document filed on Monday by the US District Court for the Northern District of California said that the settlement between YouTube and Trump “does not constitute an admission of liability or fault” on the part of the defendants or related parties.

Meta and X had already previously agreed to settle the disputes with Trump following his return on the to the White House in January.

Meta agreed to pay $25 million and Musk’s X agreed to pay $10 million.

The payout comes as further debate about political influence in media regulation and freedom of expression was sparked by the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

Earlier this month, several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, asked broadcasters Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting Group to clarify why comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show had been pulled from their schedules, raising concerns about media censorship and potential political interference involving the broadcasters.

On 15 September 2025, Jimmy Kimmel made a series of comments during his show in response to the murder of Charlie Kirk that were criticised by pro-Trump websites and Fox News.

Two days later, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr hinted in a podcast that he would consider regulatory repercussions for broadcasters who did not take action against Kimmel’s programme.

A few hours after his statements, ABC, Nexstar and Sinclair suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

ABC then announced that it would bring Kimmel’s programme back to its network, but Nexstar and Sinclair refuse to broadcast it on their local ABC stations.

In the letter, the senators said that Nexstar and Sinclair’s decisions to pre-empt Kimmel’s programme come at a time when both companies have pending issues with the Trump administration.

“Nexstar, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations and owner of dozens of ABC affiliates, needs FCC approval for its mega-merger,” they said.

Sinclair, the nation’s second-largest television broadcaster and largest owner of ABC affiliates, is also awaiting FCC authorisation for a broadcasting agreement and is planning more significant deals for the future, they added.

“If Nexstar or Sinclair traded the censorship of a critic of the administration for official acts by the Trump administration, your companies are not only complicit in an alarming trampling of free speech rights but also risk running afoul of anticorruption law,” the senators said in the letter.