Fooled Around and Found Out: YouTube Forced to Fork Over Huge Sums to Trump After Biden-Era Censorship
- Big Tech paid major settlements after censoring conservative voices.
- Google’s YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million, much directed to Trump-affiliated causes.
- These payouts expose how political pressure shaped content moderation under Biden.
Donald Trump was already wealthy, but recent legal wins have made him richer while exposing how tech platforms censored dissenting conservative voices. Major legacy and tech media firms have cut checks: Paramount Global settled for $16 million, Meta paid over $25 million, ABC News handed over $15 million, and Twitter (now X) agreed to $10 million. These settlements read like a who’s who of companies that silenced or suspended voices during the chaos of the Biden era.
Now YouTube has agreed to a $24.5 million settlement tied to prior suspensions and censorship of accounts that challenged the prevailing narratives about COVID and January 6. As Crocodile Dundee used to say in ’80s commercials pitching Australian tourism, you can now throw “another shrimp on the barbie,” because YouTube has settled with the president for a cool $24.5 mil. Twenty-two million of that haul is slated to be donated on Trump’s behalf to the Trust for the National Mall to help fund a proposed White House ballroom.
Another $2.5 million from the YouTube settlement will be distributed to other plaintiffs, including conservative nonprofits like the American Conservative Union. The broader picture is clear: platforms that throttled and canceled conservative viewpoints are being held to account in court, and those payouts are now funding conservative institutions and archives. Many of these moderation decisions were not just corporate choices but were shaped by political pressure from the Biden White House, according to House Judiciary findings.
Conservative publishers and creators were throttled for years, losing reach and revenue when platforms suppressed alternative views or labeled them misinformation. RedState and similar outlets suffered reduced distribution during that period, and these settlements are a form of restitution for the damage done. For readers and supporters who stuck around, the outcome is both vindication and a reminder that free speech costs were real.
The string of settlements also sends a message to Big Tech: censoring political speech invites consequences and can be costly. It’s satisfying to see accountability play out in courtroom decisions and settlements, and one hopes this curbs future cooperation between the White House and platforms seeking to silence dissent. For conservatives, each payout is a small corrective to years of biased moderation and a step toward a fairer digital public square.
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