Meta Agrees To Pay Trump $25 Million For Lawsuit Settlement
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Meta has agreed to pay President Donald Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 federal lawsuit pertaining First Amendment Rights and the attack on the Capitol.
After the Jan 6 attack that happened back in 2021, there was a lawsuit filed after Meta allegedly suspended Trump from Facebook and Instagram. He was suspended from both due to him voicing his opinion on how he felt about the attack. The payout resolves the suit Trump filed against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly engaging in “impermissible censorship” by removing the president from the social media platforms.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the settlement sum. This was first reported by The Wall Street journal. The company official said about $22 million of the settlement will be directed to Trump’s presidential library.
Until recently, lawyers from Meta had been fighting the suit, which they said in court papers was baseless since “Meta and its CEOs are private parties” and the First Amendment applies only to the government’s censorship of speech. Trumps suit claimed Meta only suspended his accounts after being pressured to do so by elected officials. He argued that Meta was then acting at the behest of the government.
The Meta payout is the second to Trump in recent months. In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit over coverage of E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of sexual abuse.
