Meta has agreed to pay President Donald Trump $25 million (€24 million) to settle a 2021 lawsuit he filed claiming he was wrongly censored by Facebook and Instagram after the U.S. Capitol riots. According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the settlement, roughly $22 million of the settlement money will go toward funding Trump’s future presidential library, with the remainder covering legal fees and payments to other plaintiffs in the case.
The agreement does not require Meta to admit wrongdoing, according to Meta’s spokesman, Andy Stone. Trump has previously criticized the suspension of his accounts after the January 6 Capitol attack. Zuckerberg had condemned the attack on Congress in 2021 and posted on Facebook that year: “The shocking events of the past 24 hours 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 chosen successor, Joe Biden.”