Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay about USD 25 million to settle President Donald Trump's lawsuit over the company's suspension of his accounts after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This was reported by Reuters.
Trump filed lawsuits against Twitter Inc, now known as X, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, as well as their executives in July 2021, alleging that they illegally silence conservative views.
Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked after his supporters stormed the US Capitol following his speech in which he repeated false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.
It is indicated that USD 22 million of the settlement amount will go to the fund of the presidential library of Trump, and the rest - to pay for legal services and other plaintiffs in the case.
Facebook's parent company, Meta, filed a notice of settlement in federal court in San Francisco.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that discussions of the lawsuit, which has not progressed much since the fall of 2023, resumed after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Trump's club in Florida's Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with him in November.
The social media giant, led by Zuckerberg, is trying to repair relations with the leader who opposed its policy on political content and threatened its CEO with imprisonment.
In particular, in a departure from its previous practice, Meta announced a contribution of USD 1 million to Trump's inaugural fund in December.
In January, Meta terminated its diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs, as well as canceled its fact-checking program in the United States and relaxed restrictions on discussions around controversial topics such as immigration and gender identity.
It appointed prominent Republican Joel Kaplan as head of international relations and elected Dana White, the current director of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a close friend of Trump, to its board of directors.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg previously said that Biden administration officials "shouted" and "cursed" at his employees when they disagreed with government demands to remove content related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.