‘Musk agrees to pay $10M to Trump for banning his Twitter account’

Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, and United States President Donald Trump have reached a settlement in a case that revolves around the ban of Trump’s Twitter account.

In 2021, Twitter, as it was called back then, decided to ban Donald Trump from its platform. That decision was made after Trump praised the people who stormed the Capitol via the platform. YouTube, Facebook and Instagram also decided to ban the current President of the United States from their platforms.

Trump wasn’t going to let this slide. He accused Twitter and the other social media platforms of censorship and filed a class action lawsuit against Twitter, Google, and Facebook. Around the same time Trump launched his own social media platform called Truth Social.

Soon after Musk acquired Twitter, he allowed Trump back onto the platform. Meta lifted the restrictions in February 2023. YouTube welcomed the president back to its platform in March 2023.

People familiar with the matter have told The Wall Street Journal that X, which is owned by Elon Musk since he acquired Twitter in 2022, has agreed to pay around $10 million to settle the lawsuit that Trump brought against the company.

This is striking because Musk and Trump have a close relationship. The president appointed the billionaire businessman to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Furthermore, Musk invested approximately $250 million in Trump’s presidential election campaign.

Because of the close connection between the two, insiders claim that Trump’s team considered letting the lawsuit die. However, in the end, it was decided to proceed with the settlement.

In addition to X, Meta has also reached a settlement with Trump, anonymous sources have told The Wall Street Journal. The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp will allegedly pay $25 million to the President of the United States.