Meta Settles Trump Lawsuit with $25 Million Payment Over Suspended Accounts
The settlement resolves a four-year legal battle stemming from Trump’s account suspension following the Capitol attack.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced Wednesday that it will pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump over the suspension of his social media accounts after the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The settlement, which was filed in federal court in San Francisco, resolves a legal dispute that has been ongoing for four years.
According to Meta spokesperson Andy Stone, the $25 million payment will be divided, with $22 million directed to a fund for Trump’s presidential library and the remainder allocated for legal fees and other plaintiffs involved in the case. The settlement, however, does not include an admission of wrongdoing by Meta, Stone clarified.
The White House declined to comment on the settlement. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the agreement.
Meta’s decision to pay to settle the lawsuit comes after a string of similar resolutions for Trump. In December, ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit in which Trump accused anchor George Stephanopoulos of misleading statements.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has made efforts to rebuild relations with Trump in recent months, including attending Trump's swearing-in ceremony earlier this year and hosting a celebratory party in his honor afterward. The company has also revised its content moderation policies to be more in line with conservative views, including allowing more derogatory content about transgender individuals and dissolving its independent fact-checking program in the U.S. Additionally, Zuckerberg appointed long-time Republican Joel Kaplan as Meta’s chief of global policy.
Trump has previously criticized Zuckerberg and Meta, particularly after publishing a book in August in which he claimed Zuckerberg would face prison time if he were found guilty of influencing the 2020 presidential election. Meta chose not to comment on those remarks.
Meta, like many other major tech companies, suspended Trump’s social media accounts in the aftermath of the Capitol riot, which saw Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The suspension limited Trump’s online presence for the final two weeks of his first term. In a statement following the riot, Zuckerberg explained that Trump’s refusal to condemn the violence and his actions to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power justified the account suspension.
Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram remained locked until February 2023.