YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump after the suspension of his account following the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. According to court documents, $22 million of the settlement will be allocated to the Trust for the National Mall to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom. The remaining $2.5 million will be distributed to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf.

This settlement marks YouTube as the latest major tech company to resolve legal disputes with Trump. Earlier this year, Meta Platforms settled a similar lawsuit for $25 million, while Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) agreed to pay $10 million. The settlements do not imply any admission of liability, as stated in the court filings.

YouTube suspended Trump's account on January 12, 2021, citing concerns about potential violence following the Capitol riots. Trump's legal team argued that the suspension was a violation of his free speech rights, claiming he was censored under vague standards. However, legal experts have noted that private companies like YouTube are not bound by the First Amendment, which protects against government censorship.

The settlement was disclosed just a week before a scheduled court hearing on October 6 in Oakland, California, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers. Google confirmed the settlement but did not provide further comments. Trump's YouTube account has since been restored in 2023, and the settlement amount is relatively minor compared to Alphabet's market value of nearly $3 trillion, which has increased significantly since Trump's return to the political scene.