Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Wednesday, January 29, that it has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over the company’s suspension of his accounts after the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump filed lawsuits against Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc., Twitter Inc., now known as X, and Google, as well as their chief executives, in July 2021, alleging they unlawfully silenced conservative viewpoints and calling the action by the social media companies “illegal, shameful censorship of the American people.”
According to reports, the $25 million settlement includes $22 million that will go towards funding Trump’s presidential library, with the remainder covering legal fees and compensating other plaintiffs involved in the case.
Social media platforms and search engines require users to agree to their services when using their products. Under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, social media platforms are allowed to moderate their services by removing posts that, for instance, are obscene or violate the services’ own standards, so long as they are acting in “good faith.” The law also generally exempts internet companies from liability for the material that users post.
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The resolution of this lawsuit is seen as part of Meta’s efforts to align with the Trump administration.
Discussions about the lawsuit began again after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump in November at his private Florida club.
Meta also made a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural committee, and Zuckerberg was among several billionaires granted prime seating during Trump’s swearing-in at the Capitol Rotunda, along with Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk.
Meta has also scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program, ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in January, and reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity.
This settlement follows other recent legal victories for Trump, including an agreement by ABC News to pay $15 million to fund Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
ABC Newsalso agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.
We will continue to monitor this story and provide updates as more information becomes available. In the meantime, we invite you to share your thoughts on this development and its implications for social media regulation and political discourse.
