Tech

Meta agrees to pay Donald Trump $25m to settle a 2021 federal lawsuit

Published

3 months ago

January 30, 2025

Tech giant Meta (formerly the Facebook company) has agreed to pay newly-elected US President Donald Trump the sum of $25 million to settle a 2021 federal lawsuit.

Recall that following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump sued Meta, claiming First Amendment violations and other issues, after the social media company banned him from Instagram and Facebook.

Trump sued Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly participating in “impermissible censorship” by removing him from the social media sites, and the money settles that lawsuit.

The compensation amount, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, was confirmed by a Meta representative. According to the source, Trump’s presidential library will receive roughly $22 million of the settlement.

Since Trump won a second term in the November 2024 election, Meta is at least the second big company to pay to resolve a lawsuit against the billionaire businessman turned politician.

Last December, ABC said that it would pay $15 million to resolve a dispute in which Trump claimed that he had been defamed by anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now