Donald Trump’s deal with X is the second social media network to reach an agreement with the President over the suspension of his account.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s social networking platform X has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by former US President Donald Trump, the Washington Journal reported Wednesday.
The complaint, which also cited X’s former CEO Parag Agarwal, was filed in response to the action taken by Trump’s purported supporters against his X account during the Capitol riots in January 2021.
This deal makes X the second social media network to strike an agreement with Trump over the suspension of his account.
In January, Meta Platforms stated that it was setting aside the lawsuit launched by US President Trump against the suspension of his Facebook account and had agreed to pay around $25 million.
Why is Elon Musk paying Trump $10 million?
Following the suspension of his social media accounts, Trump sued Twitter (now known as X), Facebook, and Alphabet, as well as their respective CEOs, in July 2021.
At the time, Trump claimed that their actions constituted unconstitutional censorship of conservative opinions.
While Trump’s legal team debated dropping the lawsuit against X, they finally opted to go with the settlement due to his close relationship with Elon Musk, who was also a key component of his presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, has been an ardent Trump booster, donating $250 million to his 2020 election campaign, according to sources.
Musk now heads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new White House agency aimed with drastically reducing the government bureaucracy.
According to the WSJ, Trump’s attorneys are also expected to seek a payment with Google, which blocked Trump from YouTube following the 2021 US Capitol incident.
X, its former CEO Jack Dorsey, Alphabet, and the White House did not immediately reply to demands for comment on the cases or their processes.