A second major social media platform has settled a lawsuit from Donald Trump, over his account suspension following his role in the 6 January 2021 attack at the US Capitol.
Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) will pay Donald Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed against it, the Guardian reported.
Trump had been banned on almost all social media platforms for his role in inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building on Wednesday 6 January 2021, which resulted in the deaths of at least five people (including one police officer who was beaten to death).
Social media bans
Twitter at the time under CEO Jack Dorsey opted to permanently ban Trump, who had 89 million followers, from its platform.
Trump made a number of unsuccessful attempts to have his accounts reinstated, but before Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he pledged to reverse the “stupid” Twitter ban on Trump.
Shortly after Musk’s takeover in late October 2022, Twitter reinstated Donald Trump’s account, after an online poll conducted by Elon Musk came out narrowly in favour of the move.
Trump’s first post on his restored Twitter account was a picture of mugshot in August 2023, after he was booked on 13 charges due to his efforts to reverse Georgia’s 2020 election results – charges that include racketeering, conspiracy, and soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office.
Trump now uses his X account to mostly retweet posts from his Truth Social platform.
Trump settlement
In July 2021 Trump, frustrated that his failed attempts to regain access to his social media accounts, opted to launch lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook and Google, as well as their respective CEOs.
Last month Meta Platforms agreed to pay $25 million (£20m) to settle the four-year-old lawsuit, which included a $22m donation to Trump’s presidential library.
Now the Guardian has reported that Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump after he spent $250m on his re-election campaign, and was in turn appointed as the head of the non governmental “department of government efficiency” (or Doge), has settled Trump’s lawsuit.
X will pay Donald Trump $10m to settle the lawsuit.
The settlement comes after other media outlets had reported that Trump’s legal team had considered abandoning the lawsuit.
But in the end Trump’s lawyers pressed ahead with the case.
Trump’s attorneys are expected to pursue a similar settlement with Google over its decision to ban the president from YouTube after the attack, the Guardian noted.
A settlement with Google looks like possible considering that most of the big name tech CEOs have clearly signalled their desire to co-operate with the Trump administration.