Meta agrees to pay $25 million to settle lawsuit with President Donald Trump

Meta has agreed to settle with President Donald Trump after he accused the company of violating his rights by suspending the president’s social media accounts following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a letter from Meta’s attorneys.

Meta confirmed that it will be making a donation of $22 million to Trump’s presidential library and will also pay $3 million in legal fees.

“I write to inform the Court that the parties have reached an agreement to settle the named plaintiffs’ individual claims and resolve this matter,” the letter read.

In July 2021, Trump sued Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg for “censoring” his social media account after the Jan. 6 attack, accusing the company of colluding with Democratic lawmakers to silence the then-former president.

“Akin to forcing a round peg into a square hole, Facebook declared that specific posts of Plaintiff had violated Facebook’s self-imposed ‘Community Standards,'” the lawsuit said.

The settlement comes as Zuckerberg has attempted to smooth his relationship with Trump, prominently attending his inauguration earlier this month and making multiple trips to Mar-a-Lago. Meta donated $1 million to his campaign, ended its DEI programs, and revamped its fact-checking policy, while Zuckerberg has expressed regret for his company’s past policies.

“It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it’s just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program,” Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan about the company’s fact-checking policy.