Meta has settled a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump after the social media giant suspended him from their Facebook and Instagram platforms following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. As part of the agreement, Meta will pay $25 million, including about $22 million to Trump’s presidential library and the remainder going to legal […]Meta has settled a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump after the social media giant suspended him from their Facebook and Instagram platforms following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. As part of the agreement, Meta will pay $25 million, including about $22 million to Trump’s presidential library and the remainder going to legal
has settled a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump after the social media giant suspended him from their Facebook and Instagram platforms following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
As part of the agreement, Meta will pay $25 million, including about $22 million to Trump’s presidential library and the remainder going to legal fees and other plaintiffs who were part of the litigation. A Meta spokesman confirmed the settlement, first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“I write to inform the Court that the parties have reached an agreement to settle the named plaintiffs’ individual claims and resolve this matter. The parties will file a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice in the coming days,” K. Winn Allen, attorney for Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in a filing to the federal judge overseeing the case in San Francisco.
Trump’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Trump and other defendants filed the lawsuit in 2021, arguing that they were the victims of “impermissible censorship” on the part of the platform. It claimed a violation of the First Amendment, claiming that Meta was “acting in concert with federal officials,” including officials at the Centers for Disease Control and members of Joe Biden’s transition team. The lawsuit contended that Trump’s First Amendment rights were violated because Facebook acted as a “public forum.”
In its response, Meta noted that the First Amendment prohibited the government — not a private party — from abridging speech.
The company’s attorneys wrote in 2022, “Meta and its CEO are private parties. While some private parties may be treated as state actors in limited circumstances, numerous courts—including at least a dozen in this District—have held that Meta and companies like it are not state actors for First Amendment purposes. Plaintiffs do not identify any novel theory for why this case should turn out differently. Instead, they present the same arguments that courts have rejected repeatedly.”
Meta suspended Trump indefinitely on Jan. 7, 2021 following his praise of those who engaged in violent acts at the Capitol. It lifted the suspension in 2023, and all other restrictions on his accounts in 2024.
Since then, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken steps to ingratiate himself with Trump. He dined at Mar-a-Lago during the presidential transition, and Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Zuckerberg himself attended the swearing in ceremony and other inaugural events.
Meta also has replaced its global policy chief with Joel Kaplan, a Republican, and announced a change in its content moderation policy, including an end to fact-checking.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping points towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in announcing the new policy.
According to the Journal, Trump told Zuckerberg at their November dinner that the litigation, which dragged on for years, would have to be resolved before he was “brought into the tent.” A day of mediation took place at Mar-a-Lago in early January, the Journal reported, with Trump stepping out at one point to virtually attend his sentencing in the New York hush money cash.
While Trump has claimed that his presidency is ushering in an era of free speech on social media platforms, he’s also threatened the broadcast licenses of networks who air content he doesn’t like. Earlier this month, he wrote that Comcast “should pay a big price” for airing Seth Meyers’ late-night show. Meyers has long done sharp humor at Trump’s expense.
He also has been litigious, filing frequent lawsuits against news outlets, a number of which have been dismissed. But since his victory in the presidential race, some media companies have shown a willingness to get the cases behind them. In December, ABC News settled a lawsuit that Trump brought against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos, with $15 million going to pay for his library.
A source said that Paramount Global has weighed a settlement of Trump’s litigation against CBS News as one of the options discussed. Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Paramount Global is still pending before the Justice Department and the FCC.
Trump sued the network over the way that a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris was edited even though he did not even participate in the broadcast, He sued under Texas’ consumer fraud statute, which is typically invoked in false advertising claims. CBS has said in court filings that its editorial judgments are protected by the First Amendment.