"This week, the Google-owned platform paid $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump after the company suspended his channel six days after the January 6 riot at the Capitol. At the time, YouTube said it was "concerned about the ongoing potential for violence." The terms of the settlement will direct $22 million to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit group raising money to finance an addition to the White House."
"Earlier this year, Meta and X settled similar lawsuits with Trump over suspending his accounts, paying $25 million and $1o million, respectively. These three companies alone have collectively paid Trump and his associates $59.5 million for the sin of enforcing the rules of their own privately held companies. There's also Amazon, which made a reported $40 million deal with Melania Trump on a documentary project."
"All of this amounts to a rounding error for the tech giants-averaged out, YouTube made more than $107 million from ad revenue every single day last quarter-but these are still acts of profound obsequiousness and corporate cowardice. There are any number of reasons they may have chosen to pay up: Perhaps the tech elite have become genuinely red-pilled, fear regulation, or don't want to lose out on government contracts."
YouTube paid $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump after suspending his channel following January 6; $22 million will go to the Trust for the National Mall to help finance a White House addition. Meta and X settled similar suits for $25 million and $10 million respectively. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million to Melania Trump for a documentary project, and tech executives made personal donations, including Tim Cook's $1 million to an inaugural fund. These payouts total tens of millions but represent a small fraction of tech revenue and reflect corporate concern over regulation, contracts, and potential political retribution.
Read at The Atlantic
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