Meta Platforms and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump over his suspension from Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a court filing Wednesday.
The notice, submitted in California federal court, does not disclose the full terms of the deal. However, a Meta spokesperson confirmed The Wall Street Journal’s report that most of the settlement money will go toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library.
Trump’s Lawsuit Targeted Social Media Bans
Trump’s lawsuit was one of three legal actions he filed in July 2021 against Facebook (Meta), Twitter (now X), and YouTube, challenging their decisions to ban him from their platforms. The former president accused the tech giants of unfairly silencing him and his supporters under a “misguided reliance upon Section 230” of the Communications Decency Act.
The lawsuit alleged that social media companies had coordinated with government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to suppress his views on the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump further claimed that Democratic lawmakers coerced platforms to remove him, citing public statements by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other politicians advocating for his suspension.
