Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta, makes a point during an appearance at SIGGRAPH 2024, the premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, Monday, July 29, 2024, in the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta, makes a point during an appearance at SIGGRAPH 2024, the premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, Monday, July 29, 2024, in the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against the company after it suspended his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to three people familiar with the matter.
It's the latest instance of a large corporation settling litigation with the president, who has threatened retribution on his critics and rivals, and comes as Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have joined other large technology companies in trying to with the new Trump administration.
The people familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity Wednesday to discuss the agreement. Two of the people said terms of the agreement include $22 million going to the nonprofit that will become Trump's future presidential library. The balance will go to legal fees and other litigants, they said.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the settlement.
Zuckerberg visited Trump in November at his private Florida club to try to mend fences with the incoming president, something other technology, business and government officials have done as well. At the dinner, Trump brought up the litigation and suggested they try to resolve it, kick-starting two months of negotiations between the parties, the people said.
Meta also made a $1 million donation to Trump鈥檚 inaugural committee, and Zuckerberg was among several billionaires granted prime seating during Trump鈥檚 swearing-in last week in the Capitol Rotunda, along with Google鈥檚 Sundar Pichai, Amazon鈥檚 Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who now owns the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Before Trump's inauguration, Meta announced it was dropping fact-checking on its platform 鈥 a longtime priority of Trump and his allies.
Trump filed the lawsuit months after his first term ended, calling the action by the social media companies 鈥渋llegal, shameful censorship of the American people.鈥
Twitter, Facebook and Google are all private companies, and users must agree to their terms of service to use their products. Under Section 230 of the , social media platforms are allowed to moderate their services by removing posts that, for instance, are obscene or violate the services鈥 own standards, so long as they are acting in 鈥済ood faith.鈥 The law also generally exempts internet companies from liability for the material that users post.
But Trump and some other politicians have long argued that X, Facebook and other social media platforms have abused that protection and should lose their immunity 鈥 or at least have it curtailed.
The Meta settlement comes after ABC News agreed last month toward Trump鈥檚 presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos鈥 inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer .
The network also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump鈥檚 attorney, Alejandro Brito.
The settlement agreement describes ABC鈥檚 presidential library payment as a 鈥渃haritable contribution,鈥 with the money earmarked for a nonprofit organization that is being established in connection with the yet-to-be-built library.
The president has been litigious in arguing that he has been targeted with unfair coverage by legacy media companies.
Trump has filed a lawsuit against CBS News over claims that the network aired a misleading interview with his 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on the program 鈥60 Minutes鈥 that amounted to 鈥減artisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference鈥 intended to "mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales." The program .
And he has a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register, the news outlet's parent company, Gannett, and the Iowa newspaper's pollster Ann Selzer, alleging they violated the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act by releasing a poll days before the November election that significantly understated his support in the state. The paper and Selzer have denied wrongdoing.
