Meta and X targeted as Trump lawsuit strikes
James Westmacott - 18 February 2025
It’s fair to say that it hasn’t been the greatest couple of weeks for social media giants Meta and X. Whilst the ongoing debate around clamping down on social media companies will inevitably rumble on, a President Trump-led lawsuit has now hit the sites with a double whammy of financial punishment. At the end of January, it was announced that newly inaugurated President Trump had sued Facebook and Instagram owner Meta – and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg – after his accounts were suspended following the 6 January Capitol Riots back in 2021. Meanwhile, X owner Elon Musk agreed to pay Trump a sum after the site banned the president over tweets to incite amidst the same contentious event.
The legal settlement stipulates that Meta will pay Trump $25 million, after the social media site relieved the restrictions on Trump’s account in July 2024. Both the BBC and the Wall Street Journal report that, whilst most of the cash will be put aside to fund Trump’s presidential library, the remainder will cover his legal costs. But for a long time now, Trump has been highly critical of Zuckerberg and Meta, and this bitterness may well continue, particularly as the war between social media and the state shows no sign of slowing.
On the other hand, Musk will be paying out $10 million. To confuse matters slightly, Trump’s legal team initially filed the lawsuit of the January insurrection in July 2021, when the site was still called Twitter and Jack Dorsey remained CEO. The Wall Street Journal reports that, whilst the Trump camp considered loosening their stance on the case following the company’s change of hands, they ultimately pressed on with the lawsuit. Given Trump and Musk’s close relationship, this payout may be more of a political matter than a legal one.