Meta Agrees to $25 Million Settlement with Trump Over Social Media Ban
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has agreed to a $25 million legal settlement with U.S. President Donald Trump, resolving a lawsuit he filed over the suspension of his accounts following the January 6 Capitol riots in 2021.
The settlement, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, does not require Meta to admit wrongdoing. Of the total amount, $22 million will be allocated to a fund for Trump’s presidential library, while the remaining sum will cover legal costs and compensation for other plaintiffs who joined the lawsuit.
Meta had banned Trump’s accounts for at least two years after the Capitol riots, citing concerns over incitement to violence. However, ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the company lifted all remaining restrictions on his Facebook and Instagram profiles in July 2024, restoring his access to its vast audience.
Following Trump’s re-election victory in November 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago, a move widely interpreted as a sign of warming relations between the two. The company later donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Zuckerberg was among the high-profile guests at Trump’s January 2025 inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C.
For years, Trump had been openly critical of Zuckerberg and Meta, accusing Facebook of bias against conservatives. He previously accused the platform of working against him in 2017 and, following his ban, described it as being against the interests of the American people in 2024.
Trump’s reinstatement on Meta platforms follows a similar move by Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter). Musk restored Trump’s X account in 2022 after conducting a poll in which a narrow majority of users voted in favor of lifting the ban. Meanwhile, Meta continues to defend its $65 billion investment in artificial intelligence (AI), as concerns grow over the rapid rise of Chinese AI app DeepSeek.
