No one messes with Trump

[Questat]

So I saw this: YouTube is going to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump after suspending his channel.

YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving the suspension of President Donald Trump’s account following the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump sued YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in 2021 after the companies suspended his accounts on their platforms over concerns related to the incitement of violence.
Facebook-parent Meta said in Jan that it would pay $25 million to settle its lawsuit with Trump.

If that’s true, it’s a bold statement that even major tech firms might think twice before silencing someone like him.

Here are some things to think about:

• Does this set a precedent for how platforms handle content moderation, especially for political figures?
  
• How much does this actually protect freedom of speech vs letting influential people demand payouts whenever they feel censored?

If this happened to someone less powerful, would YouTube even care or settle?

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

[Curious T]

All these cases were filed in 2021. Why is it now that they're settling? Meta settled in January, Twitter settled later on and now YouTube is doing the same. This is clearly a case of a person using his position to strong-arm corporations. Trump's accounts on those platforms were suspended over concerns related to the incitement of violence after the January 6th riot. Those are rules that are clearly stated and if you break them, the company reserve the right to take down your post or account.
Just like this forum, if a post breaks the rules, it can be taken down or worse, get banned.

[Prognostic_Factor]

There is no one that can’t be messed with because if you take this believe then you give others the right to be play God. Trump should not feel to hurt about this because he is also known for trying to silence people that are not in his interest. What ever is happening is what he gives.

[Hispo]

...

• Does this set a precedent for how platforms handle content moderation, especially for political figures?
  
• How much does this actually protect freedom of speech vs letting influential people demand payouts whenever they feel censored?

If this happened to someone less powerful, would YouTube even care or settle?

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

Trump came out victorious of that lawsuit and got such big settlement because he happens to be president of the United States, this won't affect the way YouTube treats it's users and content creators at all.
If anything, this will only make YouTube to be more careful when comes to deleting channels belonging to political figures or people influencial enough to hire very expensive lawyers, in the same manner Trump is capable of.

The common content creator and YouTuber won't see anything different from YouTube and Google, they will continue to be as greedy and corporate as usual.

Though, one cannot deny this is a significant victory for Trump and his battle against technological companies in the United States.

[aioc]

If this happened to someone less powerful, would YouTube even care or settle?

If you're not a threat, they will not care, but if someone powerful walks the talk, then you are in trouble, and YouTube and other social media don’t want to earn the ire of those who hold so much power and use it to abuse people and companies

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

They are the ones settling the issue with Trump, so it is obvious that Trump has the last laugh.

[AVE5]

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

The both parties are biased because of the YouTube platform claimed to be reputable via it services, terms and regulatory condition, they wouldn't have to agree to pay Trump the fine nomatter the influence and personality or defaulters. If Trump has actually violated it community policies, he should be treated with due process but I bet the platform can't exercise justice to this scenario because they're afraid of higher authorities not to sanction them but if It's one as the non prominent citizens, so right away justice will be served by the defaulter. And as for Trump and the authorities that oversees or grants license to those platforms biasness is that they only implements policies that doesn't have effect on them but the public only because I've seen countless times where common citizens of f the YouTube users accounts are been banned for no just cause. So I don't care whose win it's but this will reduce approach of inappropriate bans of others YouTube accounts, then it's a win for all users.

[caroasi]

Public corporations are government creations, and as such they should require those corporations to respect human rights in more ways than individuals.  Furthermore, accusing someone of a crime based on a personal opinion rather than evidence can always be considered slander, whether the person is powerful or a street beggar. Youtube, Facebook, and all other tech giants other than Tesla are very clearly enemies of everyone outside the left wing.

[JeromeTash]

All these cases were filed in 2021. Why is it now that they're settling? Meta settled in January, Twitter settled later on and now YouTube is doing the same. This is clearly a case of a person using his position to strong-arm corporations.

Exactly,

And he is not doing it at a local level, he is doing it world over but also hypocritical. Honestly, I hated the Biden administration, but Trump is just going to make the Biden folks look like they were Angels 

The United States just have themselves a rogue "dictator", and they don't even know it yet.

[Curious T]

And he is not doing it at a local level, he is doing it world over but also hypocritical. Honestly, I hated the Biden administration, but Trump is just going to make the Biden folks look like they were Angels 

The United States just have themselves a rogue "dictator", and they don't even know it yet.

I had a conversation about this with someone a few days ago. The Biden administration was not good, but compared to this Trump administration, they were better. The hypocrisy is the worst part. They accuse people of the exact same thing they are. Promote division and see people who don't share their ideology as enemies of war. To top it all up, they never take accountability for anything. Nothing is ever their fault. They either blame it on Democrats, immigrants, or blame China and Russia. Blame everybody else for the mess they created except themselves.

[Fiatless]

• Does this set a precedent for how platforms handle content moderation, especially for political figures?
  
• How much does this actually protect freedom of speech vs letting influential people demand payouts whenever they feel censored?

If this happened to someone less powerful, would YouTube even care or settle?

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

Which court gave the judgment? A US court. Who controls the government of the US? Trump. He has kept getting favourable government from courts because he is a bully. He would use all the power at his disposal to fight anyone who wants to stand on his way.

These companies have to pay him this money or face severe consequences. I am sure many of them failed to appeal the judgment because they know it's all about political settlement. 

Don't be deceived, a common citizen will not get such favourable government or compensation because the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.  It's simply to save their ass.

The settlement “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault,” on behalf of the defendants or related parties, according to a filing on Monday from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/29/youtube-to-pay-trump-24point5-million-to-settle-lawsuit-over-suspension.html

[Hispo]

All these cases were filed in 2021. Why is it now that they're settling? Meta settled in January, Twitter settled later on and now YouTube is doing the same. This is clearly a case of a person using his position to strong-arm corporations.

Exactly,

And he is not doing it at a local level, he is doing it world over but also hypocritical. Honestly, I hated the Biden administration, but Trump is just going to make the Biden folks look like they were Angels 

The United States just have themselves a rogue "dictator", and they don't even know it yet.

So far I have found many commentaries by people from the left and people contrary to Trump, declaring the United States to be an "open asylum" or a "free roaming asylum", because of all the wacky things that are going on with their government.
Certainly, there is a good question reason why Trump admires dictators, because he always wanted to be one and now he has the best chance to try to become one in his own motherland...   

Settlements by those corporations are just more evidence on the abuse of power Trump is carrying out to protect his own interest.

[OgNasty]

I just read that he fired half the IRS staff today. A good move for sure. Now maybe he can focus on simplifying the tax code and ending this nightmare of annual confusion for most taxpayers. Rumors are that he will be removing capital gains taxes on Bitcoin soon as well. What an amazing thing that would be for this community.

[IjawMan]

If this happened to someone less powerful, would YouTube even care or settle?

Not that the suspension of users accounts in these social platforms begun of recent that it has not been making the ripple, it has been there but for the normal Joe he just think of opening a new account and save the money his money from a lawsuit expenses in hiring an attorney.

Anyway, what do you all think -  is this a win for Trump, a win for content creators, or just a spectacle?

A win for Trump, yes. But Is unlikely to be an exhibition and neither is it a win for content creator because this will not stop accounts violators of the YouTube policy from been suspended.

[BADecker]

I just read that he fired half the IRS staff today. A good move for sure. Now maybe he can focus on simplifying the tax code and ending this nightmare of annual confusion for most taxpayers. Rumors are that he will be removing capital gains taxes on Bitcoin soon as well. What an amazing thing that would be for this community.

The only reason for the IRS tax is the Federal Reserve Bank. The only place government gets 99% of its funds is borrowing them from the Fed. The IRS tax shows the Fed how much government can borrow from the Bank.

If the money went back under the US Treasury directly, the government could simply print money based on gold and silver like the Constitution says. There would be no borrowing from the Fed, and no need for the IRS tax any longer. Of course, since there is a limited amount of gold and silver, government would have to trim a lot of fat off itself.

As it is, government is shut down. In the shutdown, government can't borrow from the Fed. This is causing a lot of trimming of fat right now. This might ultimately cause Trump to be required to move banking under the US Treasury, so he can get funds for government necessities.

No borrowing from the Fed, means no need for the IRS tax any longer. Americans tax-free.