Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against the social-media company after it suspended his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021.
The settlement marks a major victory for Trump, who previously criticized social-media companies for censoring him four years ago but has lately welcomed their chief executives into his inner circle. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is one such executive who embraced the new administration and even attended Trump’s inauguration.
As part of the agreement, Meta won’t admit to any wrongdoing but will pay $25 million. Of that money, $22 million will be allocated toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library while the rest will cover legal fees and pay the other plaintiffs in the case. Trump signed the settlement in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the settlement.
The lawsuit stemmed from Meta’s actions to ban Trump from posting on its platforms after the January 6 riot in the final weeks of his first term. At the time, the incumbent president claimed on social media he won the 2020 election and alleged widespread voter fraud that resulted in Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Meta initially suspended Trump’s accounts for two weeks before the ban was ultimately prolonged to two years. Other tech giants followed Meta’s example.
Trump sued Twitter, now known as X, and YouTube in 2021 after they similarly banned him from posting. Unlike the one involving Meta, those lawsuits went nowhere. Twitter restored access to Trump’s account in November 2022 after Elon Musk acquired the company, and YouTube reinstated his account in March 2023.
Wednesday’s settlement is the latest sign that Trump and Zuckerberg’s working relationship is on the mend. Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November following the election and also donated $1 million to his inaugural fund.
This is a noticeable difference from last year, when Trump threatened to jail Zuckerberg for life if he tried rigging the 2024 election against him. The president alleged the tech executive plotted against him in 2020 by donating more than $400 million to election infrastructure across the country, in what was dubbed “Zuckerbucks.”
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is reportedly exploring a purchase of a property in Washington, D.C., to take advantage of his newfound friendliness with Trump.
In recent weeks, Meta has been shifting gears to curry favor with the new administration. For example, the company ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and replaced its third-party fact-checking program with a community notes system inspired by X. The latter move was heralded as a return to free speech after years of prolific censorship under the Biden administration.
Also on Wednesday, Meta reported a 21 percent increase in revenue and a 49 percent increase in profit for the fourth quarter. The company owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
On a call with investors for the quarterly financial results, Zuckerberg credited the Trump administration for supporting the tech industry. “This is going to be a big year for redefining our relationships with governments,” he said.