Meta to pay $33.7 million to settle Trump’s 2021 lawsuit over suspended accounts

MEXICO CITY – Meta Platforms on Jan 29 said it has agreed to pay about US$25 million (S$33.7 million) to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over the company’s suspension of his accounts after the Jan 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol.

Mr Trump filed lawsuits against Twitter, now known as X, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google, as well as their chief executives in July 2021, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints.

Mr Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were suspended after his supporters launched an assault on the US Capitol following a speech by him repeating false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

Out of the settlement amount, US$22 million will go towards a fund for Mr Trump’s presidential library, and the rest to legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case.

Facebook parent Meta filed a notice regarding the settlement in a federal court in San Francisco.

Discussions about the lawsuit, which had not got very far since the autumn of 2023, started again after Meta chief executive

Mark Zuckerberg visited Mr Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago club for a dinner with him

in November 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

The Zuckerberg-led social media giant has been attempting to mend relations with a leader who has railed against its political content policies and threatened its CEO with imprisonment.

In a departure from its past practice, Meta in December announced a US$1 million contribution to Mr Trump’s inaugural fund.

Meta ended its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in January, and also scrapped its US fact-checking programme and reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity.

It named prominent Republican Joel Kaplan as its chief global affairs officer and elected Mr Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and close friend of Mr Trump, to its board. REUTERS