Meta will pay President Donald Trump $25 million to settle a lawsuit after the tech giant banned him from Facebook and Instagram following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news.
The payment will include $22 million towards a fund for Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining $3 million will go to legal fees and several other plaintiffs who were also part of the case.
The Journal notes Meta will not admit wrongdoing as part of the deal.
Trump first sued Meta in 2021 after the social giant banned him, saying at the time he had violated its rules against inciting violence. His accounts were suspended for about two years, but were reinstated in Jan. 2023 with what were meant to be “new guardrails in place.”
Zuckerberg has made major overtures to the Trump administration since the November election. The Journal notes the pair began discussing a way to end the suit in November after Zuckerberg flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for dinner following his electoral victory. Trump reportedly told the Facebook co-founder the case needed to be handled before he could be “brought into the tent,” a source told the paper.
Meta has since moved to overhaul the way it does business. The company said it would end its fact-checking program in early January, saying the system was “too politically biased.” A week later, the company dropped programs aimed at boosting diversity within Meta, echoing Trump’s own attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“A lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered,” Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan after the move. The billionaire went on to praise “masculine” corporate energy and said he felt he now had “much greater command” over Meta’s policies.
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The New York Times notes Zuckerberg touted his cozy relationship with the president in a call with investors on Wednesday, saying the new administration had expressed deep support for big tech.
“This is going to be a big year for redefining our relationships with governments,” he said.