Critics blasted Meta for agreeing to pay President Donald Trump $25 million to settle his case that the company wrongly suspended his Facebook account.
The parent company of Facebook agreed to pay the amount stemming from a lawsuit filed against them by Trump in 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. The suit argued that Meta violated Trump's rights by suspending his Facebook account in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. That account was already restored before the 2024 election.
The settlement allows Meta to continue denying any legal wrongdoing and will see $22 million go to fund the Trump presidential library, with most of the rest covering legal fees.
But the deal outraged critics on social media, who likened the deal to a bribe.
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"This isn’t really a settlement; Trump had no case to speak of, in my view. It’s better understood as a nonspecific sort of bribe," opined a writer and lawyer who goes by Southpaw on Bluesky.
"Open-air corruption. They’re just flaunting it," wrote journalist Radley Balko.
"A fat $25 million gift from Meta to Trump," wrote Jordan Uhl, co-host of The Intercept Briefing.
"Using lawsuits as a workaround for bribes," wrote Pete Smith, staff writer at the Orange and Brown Report.
"Trump had literally no claims here. And Meta just settled for $25 million for NOTHING. Which begs the question: [what] are they ACTUALLY paying for?" questioned human rights lawyer Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin.
"Trump's shakedown continues as he demands payments from companies if they don't want to be prosecuted by his DOJ," quipped Dean Obeidallah, Host of SiriusXM radio’s The Dean Obeidallah show.
"Just stuffing money into the President's pocket - happening right in front of us," wrote Brendan Nyhan, co-director of Bright Line Watch.
"Serious question: can the president just spend all his time in office suing people and then use the litigation as a 'legal' way of accepting bribes via 'settlements'?" questioned MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes.