Meta Agrees to Pay Trump $25 Mn to Settle Account Ban Lawsuit

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed support for US President Donald Trump. Drew ANGERER / AFP/File
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed support for US President Donald Trump. Drew ANGERER / AFP/File
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Meta Agrees to Pay Trump $25 Mn to Settle Account Ban Lawsuit

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed support for US President Donald Trump. Drew ANGERER / AFP/File
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed support for US President Donald Trump. Drew ANGERER / AFP/File

Meta has agreed to pay President Donald Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit he filed claiming he was wrongfully censored by Facebook and Instagram after the US Capitol riot, the company said Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the settlement of the suit brought against Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, in what was seen as a victory for Trump.

According to people familiar with the agreement, the Journal said, $22 million of the payment will go towards funding Trump's future presidential library, with the remainder covering legal fees and payments to other plaintiffs in the case.

Meta in the settlement will not admit wrongdoing over the suspensions of Trump's accounts.

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed the settlement to AFP.

Trump had widely criticized social media platforms for suspending his accounts after the January 6, 2021 insurrection by his supporters, and comments he made that were seen as praising people engaged in the violence.

But he has recently courted tech titans including Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk, both of whom attended Trump's presidential inauguration last week in Washington.

Zuckerberg has expressed support for Trump, and he has tweaked Meta's policies to lift restrictions on some content within the company's apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.

Meta would be "restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg, who reportedly dined with Trump at his Florida estate in November, said this month in announcing a rollback of fact-checking operations.

The settlement is the latest bow by media corporations as they gird for a second Trump presidency.

In December, ABC News agreed to pay a $15 million settlement payment to resolve a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump stemming from on-air comments about him made by a top anchor.

Earlier Wednesday Meta reported its net income soared by 59 percent to $62.36 billion for the full year.



Chinese Universities Launch DeepSeek Courses to Capitalize on AI Boom 

The DeepSeek smartphone app page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, China, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)
The DeepSeek smartphone app page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, China, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)
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Chinese Universities Launch DeepSeek Courses to Capitalize on AI Boom 

The DeepSeek smartphone app page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, China, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)
The DeepSeek smartphone app page is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing, China, on Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)

Universities across China have launched artificial intelligence (AI) courses this month based on Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, whose AI breakthrough has been described as a "Sputnik moment" for China and garnered widespread attention.

The move comes as Chinese authorities aim to boost scientific and technological innovation in schools and universities that can create new sources of growth for the world's second-largest economy.

DeepSeek, a Hangzhou-based startup, has been showered with praise by Silicon Valley executives and US tech company engineers alike, who say its models DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 are on par with OpenAI and Meta's most advanced models.

Shenzhen University in southern Guangdong province said this week that it was launching an artificial intelligence course based on DeepSeek which would help students learn about key technologies and also on security, privacy, ethics and other challenges it said.

It will "explore how to find a balance between technological innovation and ethical norms."

Zhejiang University in eastern China said it began holding special DeepSeek courses in February.

Shanghai's Jiao Tong University has deployed DeepSeek to upgrade AI learning tools for its courses, it said on its official Wechat account. Renmin University of China has also put DeepSeek into application in "multiple fields, injecting new power for teaching and research, campus office," it said.

China in January issued its first national action plan to build a "strong education nation" by 2035 which it said aims to establish a "high quality education system" with accessibility and quality "among the best in the world."

Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, attended a rare meeting on Monday with President Xi Jinping and some of the biggest names in China's technology sector, such as Alibaba.