Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead the National Economic Council, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 27, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are asking Google and its YouTube unit whether discussions with lawyers for President Donald Trump have included the possibility of settling a censorship suit in exchange for potentially favorable treatment from the administration.
In a letter sent Thursday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, the Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont asked the executives about conversations with Trump’s lawyers over an ongoing lawsuit Trump filed more than four years ago, accusing the online video platform of unlawful censorship.
The lawsuit stemmed from the suspension of Trump’s accounts on social media sites after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump filed suits against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube later that year.
The senators highlighted reports of a court filing from May indicating that lawyers representing YouTube and Trump were “engaged in productive discussions.” In that filing, the two parties asked the judge to delay a June court hearing until Sept. 8.
“We are concerned about the possibility that Google could settle the lawsuit against YouTube in a quid-pro-quo arrangement to avoid full accountability for violating federal competition, consumer protection, and labor laws, circumstances that could result in the company running afoul of federal bribery laws,” the letter said.
Twitter, now X, and Facebook, now Meta, settled lawsuits with Trump this year, for about $10 million and $25 million, respectively. A judge dismissed the Twitter case in 2022, but Trump appealed.
Under the 1996 Communications Decency Act, social media platforms are allowed to moderate content on their platforms and exempt themselves from liability for the material that users post.
The senators noted in their letter that Google is a defendant in multiple unfair labor and antitrust lawsuits brought by the U.S. government. It also pointed to the company’s donation of $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and noted that Pichai attended the president’s inauguration and dined with him at Mar-a-Lago.
Google currently faces the potential of being broken into parts, after the company lost an antitrust case in 2024 brought by the Department of Justice related to Google’s dominance among search engines.
The company argued that any kind of breakup could harm the U.S. in its tech competition with China. The judge is expected to rule on the penalties this month.
Also, the National Labor Relations Board has several open cases against Google that allege unfair labor practices, the senators said.
“The company has substantial interests in almost every aspect of the federal government, from tax policy to energy and environmental policy, and much more,” they wrote. “Google stands to benefit from how the federal government proceeds in these matters, and Google may settle this lawsuit in the hopes of securing outcomes favorable to the company.”
Despite calls for answers, Democratic senators have limited ability to force action, as Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress.
Google didn’t immediately provide a comment.
WATCH: Alphabet’s valuation remains highly attractive
