Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and President Donald Trump have reached a $25 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging censorship following the suspension of his accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The litigation sparked an intense debate over big tech companies using their authority to suspend or ban accounts for posted content. Meta’s legal team justified the two-year suspension of Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, stating that he violated the platform’s terms of service by “inciting violence.”
At the time of his suspension, CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a statement that read, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
In January 2023, the company restored Trump’s accounts on both platforms following his reelection campaign announcement. This came with new guidelines put in place by the corporation that addressed repeat offenders of the site’s regulations.
Elon Musk, who acquired X (formerly known as Twitter) in 2022, restored Trump’s account after several months of promoting his “free speech” objectives. Prior to this, Trump began his own social media platform, “Truth Social,” where he posted while his other accounts were terminated.
Following the 2024 presidential election, Zuckerberg visited Donald Trump’s residence in Florida where the two negotiated the lawsuit. He, along with other tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook, attended the inauguration on Jan. 20.
Free speech attorney Terrance Smith weighed in on the decision to settle between the parties involved.
“With Meta being a social media company, they reserve the right to restrict any individual for any reason. I conclude this settlement was simply to end the ongoing litigation and to cease any tension between President Trump and Zuckerberg.” – Terrance Smith, free speech attorney
Meta also announced their intention to drop the “fact-checking” feature of their apps due to concerns of partiality.
“We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO
Tech companies are pushing to find ways for disinformation to be easily spotted while allowing users to express themselves. The dispute about the precedents that have been set regarding what can be posted online continues as First Amendment protections for speech on social media platforms remains a point of debate.
