Meta pays Trump $25m to settle Facebook lawsuit

Meta has agreed to pay $25m (£20m) to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump back in 2021 over his banned accounts.

The president had sued Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, as well as its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, due to his accounts being suspended on its platforms.

Meta had banned his accounts following the attack on the US Capitol riots in January 2021 and was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

At the time, Zuckerberg explained his actions.

“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great”, he had claimed.

This was one of the handful of lawsuits he brought against leading social media platforms following the riots.

Meta then lifted the restrictions in July 2024, in the lead-up to the presidential elections.

The president similarly sued YouTube and X and their respective executives.

Google was also sued, but the case was terminated in 2023.

Of the settlement, $22m (£17.6m) will be allocated to fund Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining $3m (£2.4m) will cover legal fees, compensating other petitioners that were involved in the case.

Meta has denied any wrongdoings as part of the settlement.

The settlement discussions gained momentum after chief executive Zuckerberg met with Trump in his Mar-a-Lago estate in November last year.

This formed part of Meta’s broader efforts to improve his relations with Trump’s administration.

Following the settlement, Meta announced changes to its platform policies .

This included ending third-party fact checking on his platforms, and appointing prominent Republicans as key roles within the firm.

A month later, the tech titan donated $1m (£804,000) to Trump’s inaugural fund.

He was also a guest at the inauguration earlier this month, sat among other tech billionaires like Elon Musk.