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.



Downloads of DeepSeek's AI Apps Paused in South Korea Over Privacy Concerns 

People watch a TV reporting DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
People watch a TV reporting DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
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Downloads of DeepSeek's AI Apps Paused in South Korea Over Privacy Concerns 

People watch a TV reporting DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)
People watch a TV reporting DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP)

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns, South Korean officials said Monday.

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeek’s apps were removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening and that the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps.

The action does not affect users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their phones or use it on personal computers. Nam Seok, director of the South Korean commission’s investigation division, advised South Korean users of DeepSeek to delete the app from their devices or avoid entering personal information into the tool until the issues are resolved.

DeepSeek got worldwide attention last month when it claimed it built its popular chatbot at a fraction of the cost of those made by US companies. The resulting frenzy upended markets and fueled debates over competition between the US and China in developing AI technology.

Many South Korean government agencies and companies have either blocked DeepSeek from their networks or prohibited employees from using the app for work, amid worries that the AI model was gathering too much sensitive information.

The South Korean privacy commission, which began reviewing DeepSeek’s services last month, found that the company lacked transparency about third-party data transfers and potentially collected excessive personal information, Nam said.

Nam said the commission did not have an estimate on the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. A recent analysis by Wiseapp Retail found that DeepSeek was used by about 1.2 million smartphone users in South Korea during the fourth week of January, emerging as the second-most-popular AI model behind ChatGPT.