Trump will get a $25 million settlement from Meta over the suspension of Facebook
The settlement of the Meta lawsuit against Trump: The case of the Zuckerberg billionaire during the 2016 CMB coronavirus pandemic
A Meta spokesman confirmed the settlement sum, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company official said that approximately $22 million of the settlement would be used for Trump’s library.
The First Amendment applies only to the government’s suppression of speech and the lawyers for Meta had been fighting the suit since they said Meta and its CEOs are private parties.
In response, Meta’s legal team said Trump was suspended for violating policies against inciting violence, not because of any statement made by a member of Congress.
In a book Trump published before he was elected, he lamented the more than $400 million Zuckerberg donated in 2020 to support local election offices during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump then wrote he is watching Zuckerberg closely, threatening to throw the tech billionaire in prison for “the rest of his life.”
Zuckerberg was among a number of Silicon Valley executives and companies who contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Earlier this month, he ended Meta’s fact-checking program, which had long been criticized by Trump supporters. Kaplan was promoted to head the company’s global affairs. Dana White had been selected for the company’s board of directors.
The settlement would contribute $22 million to Trump’s presidential library funds as well as legal fees, signaling Trump’s powerful influence over corporate America. Trump’s odds of success in the case did not look particularly promising, given that a judge dismissed a similar suit filed against Twitter (now X) and another against Google was administratively closed. The docket has been stagnant since 2023. But now back in the White House, Zuckerberg and many of his tech and business peers have recognized the immense influence Trump could wield over their companies and have taken a much more proactive role in engaging with his administration compared to last time.
The settlement amount was not revealed in a letter to the court written on Wednesday by Zuckerberg lawyer K. Winn Allen, who told a judge in Northern California that “parties have reached an agreement” in the case, saying that both sides will soon ask for the suit to be dismissed.
Trump’s March on Facebook: How President Donald Trump vs. Mark Zuckerberg Responds to the Mar-A-Lago Facebook Insurrection
is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She covered tech policy for 5 years at CNBC.
It’s a step that Trump discussed with Meta CEOMark Zuckerberg when he was at Mar-a-Lago. The Journal quotes an unnamed source as saying that the lawsuit would need to be resolved before they could bring Facebook’s CEO into the tent.
Trump filed a class action lawsuit against Meta in 2021, claiming that his accounts were wrongly restricted. Facebook had announced an indefinite suspension on Trump’s accounts after his posts during the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol that year. At the time, Zuckerberg said, “The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.” Eventually, the company dropped restrictions on his accounts.
