Meta has agreed to pay US President Donald Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit he filed claiming he was wrongfully censored by Facebook and Instagram after the US Capitol riot.
The majority of the settlement, $22m, will go toward a fund to pay for Trump’s presidential library, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The remainder will pay for legal fees and go to other plaintiffs listed in the case. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s lawsuit against Facebook, which is now under parent company Meta, was one of several he brought against social media companies in the wake of January 6.
He also sued YouTube, Twitter (now renamed X) and those companies’ executives. A federal judge dismissed the suit against Twitter. The Google suit was closed in 2023 but has the option to be reopened.
Shortly after the insurrection at the Capitol, Facebook suspended Trump’s accounts. At the time, the president was using the platform to spread false claims about election fraud and to repeatedly say he won the 2020 election.
Facebook broke with its hands-off approach for political leaders and updated its rules to allow for suspensions of lawmakers to be used in “exceptional cases” during periods of civil unrest and violence. Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, said the company decided because “we believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
The company gave Trump the maximum penalty under those rules, suspending his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Trump said at the time.
He later said, “Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!”
A few months later, Facebook downgraded the suspension to two years. And, at the two-year mark in 2023, the company reinstated Trump’s access to the platform. Twitter and YouTube also allowed Trump back onto their platforms.
Zuckerberg has now made it onto Trump’s good side. He met with the president several times over the last couple of months and sat front row at the inauguration. Zuckerberg also hosted a black-tie party for the president during the inaugural celebrations.
The settlement discussions over the lawsuit began in November when Zuckerberg dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to the Wall Street Journal. The president reportedly said the lawsuit had to be dealt with before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent”. The Journal reported that Zuckerberg returned to Mar-a-Lago in early January for a day-long mediation.
Shortly after that trip to Florida, Zuckerberg made a dramatic public announcement saying Meta was lifting restrictions on its platform and allowing for more political content. Echoing Trump’s words, he said there was far too much censorship online and that “it’s time to get back to our roots”.
