SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 13 — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has agreed to pay about US$10 million (RM44.6 million) to settle a suit that United States President Donald Trump brought against the company and its former chief executive, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
That makes X the second social media platform to settle with Trump over the suspension of his accounts following the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
Last month, Meta Platforms said it had agreed to pay about US$25 million to settle a lawsuit by Trump. Trump filed suits against Twitter, now known as X, Facebook and Alphabet, as well as their chief executives at the time, in July 2021, alleging unlawful silencing of conservative viewpoints.
Trump’s team mulled letting the suit with X phase out, considering the president’s close relationship with Musk, who had contributed US$250 million to Trump’s election campaign, WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
But they ultimately moved forward with the settlement, WSJ reported.
Musk, who heads Tesla, also leads the Government Efficiency Department, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy.
Trump’s attorneys are also expected to pursue a settlement with Google, which banned Trump from YouTube after the 2021 US Capitol riot, WSJ said.
X and its CEO at the time of Trump’s suspension, Jack Dorsey, as well as Alphabet and the White House, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
— Reuters
