YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24.5 million following lawsuit over account suspension.
There are two stories out today which aren’t directly related in any way except that maybe one says something about the advisability of the other. The first story is about another win in court for President Trump. You Tube has agreed to pay him nearly $25 million.
YouTube agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Trump and others who were suspended by the video streaming platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a legal document filed on Monday.
YouTube froze Mr. Trump’s account after the riot, blocking him from uploading new videos and arguing that the content could lead to more violence. Mr. Trump sued YouTube in October 2021, claiming that it and other social media firms that removed his accounts had wrongfully censored him.
The vast majority of YouTube’s settlement payment — $22 million — will go to Mr. Trump, according to the filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He has directed that the money be contributed to the Trust for the National Mall and to the construction of a ballroom at the White House.
Last week, YouTube said it would reinstate content creators who were banned for violating its rules against misinformation related to Covid and the 2020 election. The streaming service also said it would relax some of its content moderation policies, in response to an investigation by Republicanlawmakers into whether social media companies restricted speech at the behest of the Biden administration.
There’s really no doubt at this point that the Biden administration was working behind the scenes to silence people on social media. Just last week you had people on the left furious that the FCC pushed affiliates to take Jimmy Kimmel off the airwaves.
But what if you took all of these decisions out of the hands of government by limiting their regulation and control of the infrastructure on which our telecom services operate? That may be starting to happen after Space X recently purchased some wireless bandwidth in a deal with EchoStar.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX said Monday it will buy wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar (SATS.O), opens new tab for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion, a major deal crucial to expanding Starlink’s nascent 5G connectivity business.
The spectrum purchase allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand the cell network’s capacity by « more than 100 times. »
Why is that a big deal? According to the author of this piece in the , it could limit government’s control over our cell communications over time.
