Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025.Photo:Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settleDonald Trump’s 2021 lawsuit against the tech company over his previous suspension on its platforms — a ban that notably followed theJan. 6 Capitol riots— PEOPLE has confirmed.
Instagram and Facebook’s parent company agreed to the settlement and filed a notice in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan. 29, according toNBC News.The Wall Street Journalreported that Trump, 78, signed the agreement in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
As the first outlet to report on the settlement, theWSJnoted that $22 million of the settlement will be entering a fund for Trump’s presidential library, while the remainder will go toward legal fees and other plaintiffs.
The settlement follows Meta CEOMark Zuckerberg’s attendance at Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 andMeta’s decision to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Both moments come roughly four years after Zuckerberg, 40, made apublic statementabout what he called the president’s “use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty
KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty
On Jan. 7, 2021,Zuckerberg announced that Trump had been banned “indefinitely” from Meta’s platformsfollowing the deadly riots at the U.S Capitol just a day before. At the time, the tech CEO called the events of Jan. 6 “shocking” and wrote that they “clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” following Trump’s loss during the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg added that Trump’s “decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world.”
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“It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement to theWSJ. “After Meta pays to play, what does Mark Zuckerberg expect as a return on this investment?”
The latest settlement also arrives a month after it was revealed ABC News will pay $15 million in charitable contributions to Trump’s presidential library following a libel lawsuit. Trump first filed the suit in March 2024 against ABC News and anchorGeorge Stephanopoulos, accusing them of defamation after the anchor incorrectly stated that Trump was found civilly liable for raping writerE. Jean Carrollduring a March 2024 interview with South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse, which is a different offense.
source: people.com
