YouTube, owned by Alphabet, agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump after his account on the platform was blocked due to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, CNN reports.
Then a number of social media blocked access to Trump's account on the grounds that his posts incited new violence.
The team of the then former US president filed lawsuits against the companies behind the social media on the grounds that the blocking is unlawful censorship, but a number of lawyers commented that such cases usually end up in court, since social media have the right to manage their own content.
YouTube's current decision to seek an agreement comes against the backdrop of the actions of two other companies - Meta and the then Twitter (now X), which also agreed out of court to pay compensation.
Under the negotiated agreement, YouTube will transfer $ 22 million to the non-governmental organization Trust for the National Mall, which works to preserve and develop the National Mall park in Washington and supports the project to build a new White House Ballroom.
Another $ 2.5 million will be paid to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union.
The current out-of-court settlements come against the backdrop of the increasingly conciliatory, and at times openly supportive, attitude of the tech giants towards Trump and the Republican Party since he returned to power in January.
Just a week ago, YouTube announced that it would restore some of the blocked accounts removed due to already repealed rules against the spread of misinformation - including about the results of the 2020 elections d.
"We value conservative voices on our platform and understand that these creators reach a broad audience and play an important role in public debate," the company said in an official statement.