Critics of Big Tech and President Donald Trump are on high alert as Google and President Donald Trump’s legal teams are engaged in what look like potential settlement discussions.
Lawyers for Trump and Google’s YouTube recently told a federal judge they “continue to engage in productive discussions regarding next steps” in a lawsuit Trump filed over YouTube’s decision to ban Trump’s account in the wake of the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. The lawyers expect “additional discussions … in the near future.” Trump also sued then-Facebook and Twitter over their bans, and Meta recently paid $25 million to settle theirs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) now warns that Google might be next to follow its lead.
Google is still untangling itself from a mess of legal battles, including two separate anti-monopoly lawsuits the Justice Department won against it. It’s awaiting decisions on how those judges see fit to remedy its harms to competition in the online search and ad tech markets, which could include forcing it to sell its Chrome browser. Meanwhile, recent chaos at the DOJ Antitrust Division has left former enforcers fearing that the agency appears susceptible to outside corporate influence. “This could be another example of how giant corporations are enabling Trump’s authoritarianism,” Warren warns.
