Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump.
Trump sued the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram after his social media accounts were suspended following the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol. Now, Meta confirmed a $22 million donation to Trump’s presidential library as well as $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,” read a letter from Meta’s attorneys.
(Video Credit: NBC News)
“Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, filed a notice of the settlement in federal court in San Francisco, where the lawsuit was pending. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone separately confirmed the terms: a $25 million payment from the company, with $22 million going toward a fund for Trump’s presidential library and the balance dedicated to legal fees and other plaintiffs in the case,” NBC News reported.
Stone noted that the settlement does not require the company to admit to any wrongdoing.
Talks about a settlement reportedly ramped up when Zuckerberg flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in November, according to the Wall Street Journal which cited “people familiar with the discussions.”
“Toward the end of the November dinner, Trump raised the matter of the lawsuit, the people said. The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could be ‘brought into the tent,’ one of the people said,” according to WSJ. “Weeks later, in early January, Zuckerberg returned to Mar-a-Lago for a full day of mediation.”
“There were talks between the two of them, Zuckerberg and Trump, with me and other lawyers in the room, of course,” Trump lawyer John Coale said Wednesday. “I’ve been working to get people to the table for two years now. Of course, the election helped.”
The 2021 complaint against Meta stated that “Censorship runs rampant and the result is a chilling effect cast over our nation’s pressing political, medical, social, and cultural discussions.”
“I think generally other social media companies, most of them, have come around to trying to combat the censorship that they did back then, but they also hurt a lot of people back then, and I think it’s good for Meta to take some responsibility for that,” Coale said.
Zuckerberg made a $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration fund in December and was in attendance when the 47th president was sworn in.
The latest lawsuit news comes on the heels of $15 million paid by ABC News to settle a defamation suit brought by Trump.
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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