Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle Donald Trump's 2021 Lawsuit Over Capitol Riot Suspension

The settlement comes four years after Mark Zuckerberg announced Trump was "indefinitely" banned from Meta's platforms following the events of Jan. 6, 2021

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends the inauguration of Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025

Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle Donald Trump's 2021 lawsuit against the tech company over his previous suspension on its platforms — a ban that notably followed the Jan. 6 Capitol riots — PEOPLE has confirmed.

Instagram and Facebook's parent company agreed to the settlement and filed a notice in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan. 29, according to NBC News. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, 78, signed the agreement in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

As the first outlet to report on the settlement, the WSJ noted that $22 million of the settlement will be entering a fund for Trump's presidential library, while the remainder will go toward legal fees and other plaintiffs.

The settlement follows Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's attendance at Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and Meta's decision to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund. Both moments come roughly four years after Zuckerberg, 40, made a public statement about what he called the president's "use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government."

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Related: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg Among Several Tech CEOs Filling VIP Seats at Trump's Inauguration

KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025

KENNY HOLSTON/POOL/AFP via Getty

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025

On Jan. 7, 2021, Zuckerberg announced that Trump had been banned "indefinitely" from Meta's platforms following the deadly riots at the U.S Capitol just a day before. At the time, the tech CEO called the events of Jan. 6 "shocking" and wrote that they "clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden," following Trump's loss during the 2020 election.

Zuckerberg added that Trump's "decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world."

Per the WSJ, Trump's lawsuit against Meta was filed in July 2021 amid a series of legal actions against social media companies that suspended the then-former president's accounts following the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6. Trump's lawsuit against Twitter (now X) was dismissed by a judge and a lawsuit against Google was administratively closed in 2023, the outlet reported.

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“It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement to the WSJ. “After Meta pays to play, what does Mark Zuckerberg expect as a return on this investment?”

The latest settlement also arrives a month after it was revealed ABC News will pay $15 million in charitable contributions to Trump's presidential library following a libel lawsuit. Trump first filed the suit in March 2024 against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, accusing them of defamation after the anchor incorrectly stated that Trump was found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll during a March 2024 interview with South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse, which is a different offense.

At the top of his second term, the president has also notably pardoned about 1,500 people who were charged in the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. Since then, one man pardoned by Trump was fatally shot by police following a traffic stop in Indiana. Another pardoned rioter is now wanted by Texas authorities for allegedly soliciting a minor online.

Read the original article on People