Elon Musk's X Agrees To Pay $10 Million To Settle Trump Lawsuit

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X (formerly Twitter), the social media network owned by Elon Musk, has agreed to pay approximately $10 million to settle a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump. For those unfamiliar, the lawsuit is about the suspension of Trump’s account following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Agreeing to settle

Back in 2021, (X, then Twitter) removed Trump from its platform following the riots at the US Capitol. The company claimed that Trump made inflammatory posts and said that it could lead to more violence. Trump later filed a lawsuit against Twitter. He alleged that the company wrongfully censored him by removing his accounts.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, but Trump’s legal team appealed the decision. With the settlement, it brings the Musk-owned X and Trump lawsuit to a close. The amount of the settlement was not confirmed, but a Wall Street Journal report claims that it is $10 million. Both X and Trump have also agreed to pay their own costs, according to the filing.

In the grand scheme of things, settling a lawsuit for $10 million isn’t actually a lot. However, we’re not surprised by this outcome. When Elon Musk took over Twitter and later renamed it to X, one of the first things he did was reinstate Trump’s account.

Musk and Trump have since built a very close relationship with each other. Musk is now heading up a government initiative under Trump called the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump has also floated the idea of Musk potentially buying out TikTok, although Musk later said that he has no intentions of doing so.

Twitter wasn’t the only company that moderated posts made by Trump or related to Trump. During Trump’s first term, the President was very active in social media platforms like Twitter, using it to voice his opinions and air his grievances. Some have viewed his statements as inflammatory and divisive.

This eventually led to other social networks to heavily moderate, restrict, or ban his presence entirely. This included platforms such as Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, just to name a few.

Other non-social media companies were also involved, such as Apple and Google. This is because of Parler, a social media platform that prided itself on free speech and being unbiased, which saw a huge increase in popularity following the heavy moderation of Trump’s social media posts.