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Elon Musk’s social media platform X has agreed to settle a lawsuit over what was then Twitter banning Donald Trump after the mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, a newspaper said Wednesday.
X has agreed to pay about $10 million to settle a lawsuit that Trump filed against Twitter and its former chief executive Jack Dorsey protesting his ban, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
In the now infamous insurrection more than 140 police officers were injured in hours of clashes with pro-Trump rioters wielding flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other makeshift weapons along with Tasers and canisters of bear spray.
Twitter and other social media platforms removed Trump at the time due to concerns he would promote further violence with bogus claims that voter fraud caused his loss to Joe Biden in 2020.
Billionaire Musk subsequently bought Twitter and renamed it X. Musk reinstated Trump on the platform and was a major Trump supporter during the recent presidential race.
Trump has made Musk head of a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta in January agreed to pay Trump $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit he filed claiming he was wrongfully censored by Facebook and Instagram after the US Capitol riot, according to the social media giant.
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 and comments he made that were seen as praising people engaged in the violence.
After taking office in January, Trump granted pardons to more than 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump also ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.
AFP
