Meta Settles Trump Lawsuit for $25 Million

Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit stemmed from the suspension of Trump’s accounts following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

This settlement marks a significant resolution in the ongoing legal battle between the tech giant and the former president, according to sources familiar with the matter.

As Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have joined other big tech companies in attempting to gain favour with the new Trump administration, this is the most recent example of a big business reaching a settlement with the president, who has threatened to exact revenge on his opponents and rivals.

It’s the most recent example of a big business settling with the president, who has threatened to exact revenge on his opponents and rivals.

Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are joining other big tech companies in their efforts to gain favour with the new Trump administration.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the individuals with knowledge of the situation discussed the deal on Wednesday.

The charity that will serve as Trump’s eventual presidential library would receive $22 million as part of the agreement, according to two people. They stated that the remaining amount would be used for other litigants and legal bills.

Like other tech, corporate, and government leaders, Zuckerberg paid Trump a visit at his exclusive club in Florida in November in an attempt to patch things up with the incoming president. According to the persons, Trump started two months of talks between the parties at the meal when he mentioned the lawsuit and proposed that they attempt to settle it.

Zuckerberg was one of several billionaires who were given first dibs at Trump’s swearing-in last week in the Capitol Rotunda, along with Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, who now owns the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.

Trump and his supporters have long prioritised fact-checking, which Meta declared it would be doing on its platform prior to Trump’s inauguration.

Months after the conclusion of his first term, Trump filed the case, accusing the social media giants of “illegal, shameful censorship of the American people.”

Google, Facebook, and Twitter are all private businesses, and in order to use their services, users must accept their terms of service. As long as they are operating in “good faith,” social media companies are permitted to filter their services by eliminating posts that, for example, are pornographic or go against the company’s own standards under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

Additionally, the law often shields internet service providers from responsibility for user-posted content.

However, Trump and a few other lawmakers have long maintained that Facebook, X, and other social media companies have misused this protection and need to be stripped of it, or at the very least have it limited.

To resolve a defamation lawsuit involving anchor George Stephanopoulos’ false on-air claim that the president-elect had been found civilly responsible for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, ABC News agreed last month to pay $15 million towards Trump’s presidential library.

This settlement follows the Meta deal. Additionally, the network consented to pay Alejandro Brito’s law company, Trump’s lawyer, $1 million in legal fees.

According to the settlement agreement, ABC’s presidential library payment is a “charitable contribution,” with funds designated for a nonprofit organisation being formed in relation to the library that has not yet been constructed.

The president has been litigious in his claims that traditional media outlets have unfairly covered him.

Regarding allegations that the network broadcast a deceptive interview with his 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on the show “60 Minutes,” which amounted to “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” with the intention of “misleading the public and attempting to tip the scales,” Trump has sued CBS News. The allegations were rejected by the program.

Additionally, he is suing The Des Moines Register, Gannett, the parent company of the news outlet, and Ann Selzer, the pollster for the Iowa newspaper, because they violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act by publishing a poll just days before the November election that drastically underestimated his support in the state. Selzer and the paper have denied any misconduct.

AP NEWS