One of the interesting developments in the wake of Donald Trump's win in the 2024 presidential election was the movement from Big Tech to fall in line with the vibe shift in America that victory represented. For instance, despite demands from the censor-happy European Union, Google announced earlier this month that it would NOT employ fact checkers despite an EU law demanding them.
More notable, however, was the shift from Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently went on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to reveal how much the Biden administration had pressured Facebook and Instagram to censor and remove content it did not like. Zuckerberg also infuriated the left by announcing that Meta would no longer be employing fact-checkers either and would employ a system of Community Notes, similar to what Elon Musk adopted for Twitter.
This is all great news, of course, but even if Zuckerberg is sincere about his free-speech policy shift (or if he just thinks it is a sound business decision for his platforms), that does not forgive what he had done in the past, particularly with respect to Trump. Like many social media platforms, including the old Twitter, Facebook suspended the account of Donald Trump in 2021 in the aftermath of the January 6 protests.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg got a bill for trying to silence and censor the sitting President of the United States, and it was a hefty one.
🚨 #BREAKING: Meta and Mark Zuckerberg have agreed to pay President Trump $25 MILLION for unjustly suspending his account in 2021
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 29, 2025
$22 million of that will go toward Trump’s Presidential Library
So now, ABC and Meta alone have funded Trump’s library to the tune of $37 MILLION 🤣… pic.twitter.com/c1Gl6sBTJl
This settlement is the second lawsuit that Trump has won against media companies who have targeted him. In December, ABC News settled with Trump to the tune of $15 million after host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly and deliberately defamed Trump on air as a 'rapist.'
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That settlement included a public apology, but unfortunately, the Meta $25 million settlement does not.
However, Meta was forced to pay all of Trump's legal fees for the lawsuit, which accounts for the remaining $3 million and the $22 million that will go to the Trump Presidential Library.
At this point, that library might need to add another wing to house Trump's wins over the media.
THE MEME WING OF THE LIBRARY IS GONNA BE LIT AF!
— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) January 29, 2025
HA. There might be a whole corridor dedicated to memes of Stephanopoulos and Zuckerberg crying while handing over giant bags of cash to Trump.
If these lawsuit victories against progressive media companies keep getting settled in the millions of dollars, Trump is going to have an even swankier presidential library than the record-breaking $483 million monstrosity getting built for Obama in Chicago. https://t.co/fmL22s2IzV
— davd soul (@davdsoul) January 30, 2025
Maybe Trump's settlements can also be used to buy Greenland ... though that might not be a great location for his library.
Win after win after win! pic.twitter.com/CNn9Wr2i8j
— Phoeni𝕏 2A 🇺🇸 (@Phoenix2A_1980s) January 29, 2025
Many other people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who repeatedly has called Trump the 'R' word even after his ABC victory, should probably start deleting some tweets before they have to get their checkbooks out, too.
It should have been $5 BILLION! https://t.co/WfOXXw5ROm
— Godfroy (@g0dfr0y) January 29, 2025
It's true that, for a company like Meta, the $25 million price tag isn't all that steep. The victory, in principle, matters more than the dollar amount. But there's a reason that both ABC News and Meta settled these suits rather than put them in front of a jury. The information that would have been disclosed during discovery would likely have been FAR more damaging than the big checks they had to write.
And Meta's settlement might have also staved off other class-action suits that many other people could bring against them or other social media companies.
Can @finkd pay my husband $25 million for suspending his account too? #meta @realDonaldTrump @POTUS https://t.co/zueMxeYKMg
— Jennifer Holcomb ❤ (@Jennifer521) January 30, 2025
He suspended me also, do I get $1 million dollars. https://t.co/kapajCdIxm
— whatevertoday. (@Chapp4Chappell) January 30, 2025
We don't know the likelihood of any class-action suits on behalf of users, but we do know that what Meta (and Twitter under Jack Dorsey) did was unforgivable.
Funding Trump's library won't change that, and many people are not ready to let Zuckerberg off the hook.
Paying the "Please Please PLEASE don't throw me in jail" Tax https://t.co/JP3odYhwWO
— MF STYLO (@Stylonuum) January 30, 2025
How is this 👇 winning? Committed treasonous acts, censored anyone using his platform, and now buys his way out. Zero accountability. https://t.co/93G8qNO77L
— Corey Jacobsen (@CoreywJacobsen) January 30, 2025
So I guess Billionaires just pay for their get out of jail free cards. 25 million dollar fine, basically, for everything Zuckerf^*ck did? He got off way too cheap. That POS needs to go to jail. https://t.co/Rbowt8aQth
— Craig Lapp (@2MuchSpin) January 30, 2025
At the very least, there should be an investigation into Zuckerberg's election interference in 2020 from Pam Bondi's DOJ.
The issue of past social media censorship, particularly at the behest of Biden's government, is long from over just because of this settlement. But at least we can enjoy the continued winning for the moment.
Hahahahahaha https://t.co/IFz6omVSgH
— Kron (@Kronykal) January 29, 2025
https://t.co/tFoPOX3Pe6 pic.twitter.com/z8GyZRIxnI
— HumblyLisa (@HumblyLisa) January 29, 2025
Winning!!! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/34SPfu7Lgu
— Sup Mario Bro (@SupMarioBro) January 29, 2025
Zuckerberg still has a lot to answer for, but if nothing else, Trump now has 25 million more reasons to listen to 'YMCA' and do the Trump dance.
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