Meta agrees to pay $25 million in Trump lawsuit settlement over suspended accounts

[Pelican Press 0]

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Meta agrees to pay $25 million in Trump lawsuit settlement over suspended accounts

U.S. President Donald Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Cheney Orr | Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters

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 

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 after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

Meta, the parent company of

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and

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, 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 

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. 

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 

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 to close out a dispute in which Trump alleged that anchor George Stephanopoulos had defamed him. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has worked aggressively 

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. He had a prime seat for Trump’s swearing-in this month and hours later hosted a party in Trump’s honor. Meta has overhauled its content moderation policies to more closely align with the Trump administration, including allowing 

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 and 

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 program in the United States. Also, Zuckerberg promoted a longtime Republican, Joel Kaplan, to be chief of global policy at the company.

Trump has previously been critical of Zuckerberg and Meta. In late August, Trump published a book of photographs in which he said Zuckerberg “will spend the rest of his life in prison” if he does “anything ********” to influence the presidential election. At the time, Meta declined to comment on the statement.

After Trump won the Nov. 5 election, Zuckerberg wished Trump well and donated to his inaugural fund.

Meta, along with 

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, suspended Trump’s social media accounts after the Capitol riot by Trump’s supporters, limiting Trump’s presence online for the final two weeks of his first term. 

Zuckerberg said in a Jan. 7, 2021, 

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 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 

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 on

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and

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until February 2023.

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