Meta to pay Trump $25 million to settle 2021 lawsuit
President Trump has signed settlement papers that are expected to require Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay roughly $25 million to resolve a 2021 lawsuit Trump brought against the social media giant, according to sources familiar with the agreement.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the settlement.
The lawsuit stemmed from Meta’s suspension of his accounts after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Facebook (which is now Meta) initially suspended and then announced in June 2021 that it would ban Mr. Trump from its platform for at least two years, after finding that his posts on Jan. 6 had stoked violence and posed a risk to public safety. Twitter, now named X and owned by Elon Musk, also barred Mr. Trump from its social media site for the same reason.
Mr. Trump sued Facebook and Twitter, claiming they had violated his First Amendment right to free speech in “illegal, unconstitutional censorship.” He was reinstated on Twitter in 2022 and returned to Facebook in 2023.
In complaints filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Mr. Trump had asked the court to overturn Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media companies from liability for content posted on their platforms, and restore his accounts on the two social media sites, as well as his channel on YouTube. He also asked the courts to prevent Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from “exercising censorship, editorial control or prior restraint in its many forms” over the posts and uploads of the presidents.
According to the Wall Street Journal, $22 million will be donated to a fund for Mr. Trump’s presidential library, and the rest will be used for legal fees and go to other plaintiffs on the case.
Meta also donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inaugural fund, and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, attended the inauguration.
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contributed to this report.
