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(CN) — YouTube will pay President Donald Trump and other plaintiffs $24.5 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought after his account on the video platform was suspended in the wake of the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s share of the settlement is $22 million, according to the notice of settlement filed Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, and the American Conservative Union and other individuals who filed the putative class action will receive $2.5 million.
The president is contributing his cut of the settlement to the Trust for the National Mall to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom, according to the notice.
YouTube is not admitting liability or fault and agreed to settle the case for “the sole purpose of compromising disputed claims and avoiding the expenses and risks of further litigation.”
Trump filed four class actions in Florida federal court against YouTube, Twitter — now X — and Facebook, along with their CEOs over the suspension of his social media accounts.
Demanding unspecified damages and the restoration of his accounts, the then- former president claimed that banning or suspending Trump, as well as other named plaintiffs, is a violation of the First Amendment despite the fact the defendants are private companies.
Trump said in the complaints that a law which gives internet companies civil immunity for content moderation decisions “has turned a handful of private behemoth companies into ‘ministries of truth’ and into the arbiters of what information and viewpoints can and cannot be uttered or heard by hundreds of millions of Americans.”
Facebook, Twitter, and Google-owned YouTube removed Trump from their platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, citing fears that he would incite further violence.
A federal judge three years ago stayed Trump’s lawsuit against YouTube pending his appeal of the dismissal of his case against X. That appeal was terminated after X settled with Trump earlier this year.
Trump wanted the judge to order YouTube to restore his account after being indefinitely suspended so that he can sell merchandise on the video platform.
Trump claimed members of Congress exerted “coercive pressure” on the tech companies to censor him. He claims YouTube “worked with the government” to violate his First Amendment rights.
He also claimed YouTube deceived users and violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by “unevenly applying its standards” for user conduct in regarding to suspending or banning users for spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic.
In their motion to dismiss Trump’s demand for a preliminary injunction, YouTube argued Trump lacks standing to claim the company violated his First Amendment rights, partly because the company lays out community guidelines for what content cannot be published on the website.
The platform also argued it would “face irreparable injury” if ordered to publish and promote Trump’s messages, and that this action would violate the company’s First Amendment right to exercise editorial control over speech on a privately run forum.
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