Meta’s the latest corporation to bend to Trump with $25 million payout
Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump filed for suspending his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
First reported by the Wall Street Journal, this news is the latest instance of a large corporation settling with Trump, who once threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with jail time. The settlement comes as Zuckerberg and other tech bros have attempted to ingratiate themselves with the new Trump administration.
Of the total settlement, $22 million will go toward funding Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining $3 million is earmarked for the legal fees of Trump and other plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta is not admitting wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
The settlement is a huge concession by Meta, which once defended Trump’s suspension from its platforms. The temporary ban was put in place following a string of of incendiary posts Trump made during and after the Capitol riot.
At the time, Zuckerberg said the risks of Trump’s activity on the social media platforms “are simply too great” and paused his accounts for two weeks, which was later extended. Trump’s accounts were restored in January 2023.
More recently, though, Zuckerberg has shown he wants to rebuild his fraught relationship with Trump and the federal government. And he’s not alone. Since Trump’s win this past November, tech executives have adopted a defensive stance toward their former enemy.
“This is going to be a big year,” Zuckerberg said on an earnings call earlier this week, adding that Meta would be “redefining our relationship with governments” during Trump’s second term.
“We now have a U.S. administration that is proud of our leading companies. That prioritizes American technology winning. And that will defend our values and interests abroad. And I am optimistic about the progress and innovation that this can unlock. I think that this is the most exciting and dynamic that I have ever seen in our industry,” he said.
The settlement builds on Zuckerberg’s recent ring kissing, a culmination of moves that have earned him praise from Trump and other conservatives. Earlier this month, Meta announced plans to disband its third-party fact-checking team and replace it with a community notes-style system similar to the one currently used on Elon Musk’s X. Days later, Meta ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, effective immediately.
Zuckerberg also greenlit Meta’s eyebrow-raising $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration fund and has sought to strengthen his personal relationship with the president. He visited Trump at his private Florida club in Mar-a-Lago this past November, during which Trump brought up the litigation and suggested that they attempt to resolve it. This kicked off two months of negotiation between the parties.
Indeed, when asked what prompted the settlement, Trump lawyer John Coale told Politico, “I’ve been working to get people to the table for two years now. Of course, the election helped.”
Trump first filed the lawsuit months after his first term ended, accusing Meta and Twitter—which was owned by Jack Dorsey at the time—of violating the First Amendment. He called the limitations on his online presence “illegal, shameful censorship of the American people.”
Meta’s settlement comes after ABC News similarly caved to Trump. Last month, the network agreed to pay $15 million for his presidential library after anchor George Stephanopoulos incorrectly said on air that Trump was found “liable for rape.” He was actually found liable for sexual abuse.
And ABC News isn’t the only outlet that Trump has targeted.
In December, Trump personally sued Iowa-based pollster Ann Selzer over a survey she released days before the election that predicted former Vice President Kamala Harris would carry Iowa by 3 percentage points. Trump went on to win the state by roughly 13 points.
More recently, he appointed a new chair for the Federal Communications Commission who revived three complaints levied against ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News.
Between corporate news outlets and social media conglomerates, it seems no one plans to stand up to Trump any time soon.