Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riots
Meta agrees to pay Trump $25m for suspending accounts over Capitol riots
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Settlement originates from lawsuit by president against the platform, one of several filed after 6 January violence. Meta has agreed to pay $25m to settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump. The suit originated in 2021 when Trump sued the social media company for suspending his accounts after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The settlement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and has been confirmed by a Meta spokesperson.
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 around 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 came to the decision because, “we believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”.
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