Former President Trump has finalized settlement documents that are anticipated to obligate Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay approximately $25 million to settle a lawsuit from 2021 that Trump initiated against the social media behemoth, according to sources with knowledge of the agreement.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news of the settlement.
The lawsuit originated from Meta’s suspension of his accounts following the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Facebook (now under the Meta umbrella) initially suspended Trump and then declared in June 2021 that he would be banned from the platform for a minimum of two years, citing that his posts on January 6 provoked violence and posed a danger to public safety. Similarly, Twitter, rebranded as X and owned by Elon Musk, also prohibited Mr. Trump from its platform for comparable reasons.
Trump filed lawsuits against both Facebook and Twitter, asserting that their actions constituted a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech, which he described as “illegal, unconstitutional censorship.” He was reinstated on Twitter in 2022 and made his return to Facebook in 2023.
In complaints lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Trump sought to have the court nullify Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from liability regarding content shared on their platforms. He also requested the restoration of his accounts on both social media platforms as well as his YouTube channel. Furthermore, he asked the courts to prohibit Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube from exercising “censorship, editorial control, or prior restraint in its various forms” over posts and uploads related to the president.
The Wall Street Journal reported that $22 million will be allocated to a fund for Mr. Trump’s presidential library, with the remainder designated for legal expenses and support for other plaintiffs involved in the case.
Additionally, Meta made a $1 million donation to Mr. Trump’s inaugural fund, and their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was present at the inauguration.
