Meta said Wednesday it would pay $25 million to settle a four-year-old lawsuit from President Donald Trump over the social media company’s decision to suspend Trump’s accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, filed a notice of the settlement in federal court in San Francisco, where the lawsuit was pending. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone separately confirmed the terms: a $25 million payment from the company, with $22 million going toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library and the balance dedicated to legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case.
The settlement does not require Meta to admit wrongdoing, Stone said.
The White House declined to comment on the settlement.
The settlement was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Meta is at least the second major corporation to pay to settle a Trump lawsuit since he won a second term in the November election. In December, ABC said it would pay $15 million to close out a dispute in which Trump alleged that anchor George Stephanopoulos defamed him.
Meta, along with nearly every other major tech company, suspended Trump’s accounts after the Capitol riot by Trump’s supporters, limiting Trump’s presence online for the final two weeks of his first term.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Jan. 7, 2021, post on Facebook that Trump’s refusal to condemn his supporters who stormed and occupied the Capitol showed that he “intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.”
Trump’s accounts remained locked on Facebook and Instagram until February 2023.
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