After President Donald Trump was inaugurated this week, several Facebook and Instagram users were taken aback to see that they were automatically following the accounts of Mr Trump, Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.
The followers for both accounts rapidly increased after Mr Trump acquired the @POTUS Instagram handle and Mr Vance was assigned the @VP handle. Many people have complained on social media that they never followed the politicians in the first place.
This came after Meta announced it has been modifying its platforms. Earlier this month, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms said Community Notes would replace its third-party fact-checking program. This aims to lessen claims of bias in content monitoring and to support free expression.
The co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, said: “The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US.”
But what’s the latest furore all about?
What have social media users said?
Instagram and Facebook users raised concerns on X (formerly Twitter) about their fears that Meta had made it compulsory to follow the above accounts without being able to do otherwise.
One user wrote: “This is shady. Yesterday Facebook changed my account to follow President Trump, VP Vance, and the White House without my permission. They just auto subscribed me.”
This is shady. Yesterday Facebook changed my account to follow President Trump, VP Vance, and the White House without my permission. They just auto subscribed me. pic.twitter.com/hkG8Bq47Na
— Mandy O’Neill (@mandyoneill) January 21, 2025
Another user added: “Check your following list on your socials cause Insta &Facebook (& I'm sure Twitter will at some point) is randomly making people follow that evil orange man, his VP, &his wife without you realizing it. Stay safe &check. This is SO sketchy/disgusting. “Land of the free" my A**”
Check your following list on your socials cause Insta &Facebook (& I'm sure Twitter will at some point🤬) is randomly making people follow that evil orange man, his VP, &his wife without you realizing it. Stay safe &check. This is SO sketchy/disgusting. “Land of the free" my ASS
— Amie🌹🫶🩷🪩 (@Love4Pop) January 22, 2025
A third, who didn’t believe everyone else at first, said: “I thought yall were being weirdo conspiracy theorists but Meta absolutely did auto follow the VP and POTUS accounts for everyone even though we all unfollowed. Check the photo evidence:”
I thought yall were being weirdo conspiracy theorists but Meta absolutely did auto follow the VP and POTUS accounts for everyone even though we all unfollowed. Check the photo evidence: pic.twitter.com/Ku6DAT96Pr
— Elita | UGC Creator (@UGCxElita) January 21, 2025
A fourth added: “Wait did facebook auto follow all of the new admin for americans?? i did not follow any of these pages i barely even use facebook but they were all at the top of my feed, and when i clicked through it said i followed them??”
wait did facebook auto follow all of the new admin for americans?? i did not follow any of these pages i barely even use facebook but they were all at the top of my feed, and when i clicked through it said i followed them?? pic.twitter.com/PcBd9Nap4E
— swamp hag ❄️☃️☕️🐰✨ (@potatoslav) January 20, 2025
Some people even reported unfollowing the accounts, only to return to them and discover they were following again.
One said: “Okay I have now unfollowed JD Vance THREE times today and have verified I wasn’t following trump, go back, and somehow I am following him. Like how is that happening????”
okay I have now unfollowed JD Vance THREE times today and have verified I wasn’t following trump, go back, and somehow I am following him. Like how is that happening????
— rose 🥀 - ghostface buck era (@bewildered_bi) January 21, 2025
Another frustrated user said: “OH MY GOD I JUST UNFOLLOWED TRUMP FOUR TIMES ON INSTGRAM AND IT JEEPS FOLLOWING HIM BAXK.”
OH MY GOD I JUST UNFOLLOWED TRUMP FOUR TIMES ON INSTGRAM AND IT JEEPS FOLLOWING HIM BAXK pic.twitter.com/vt0znQcijQ
— lyssa* ੈ✩‧₊˚ (@vampireviolet_) January 21, 2025
Another person reported the same experience: “i’ve had to unfollow trump three times today. stop this madness”
i’ve had to unfollow trump three times today . stop this madness pic.twitter.com/BbHAKoefUb
— neá (@eternalnea) January 22, 2025
But why are users automatically following President Trump and JD Vance?
Thankfully, as MailOnline reported, there’s a straightforward explanation for this change.
The accounts that users reported following were not the personal profiles of Mr Trump, Mr Vance, and Mrs Trump, but the official White House accounts for president, vice president, and first lady.
The official accounts for the president, vice president, and first lady are managed by the White House.
When a new president takes office, these social media accounts are updated accordingly.
This means anyone who had previously followed the Joe Biden official ‘potus’ account will now be automatically following the Trump ‘potus’ account.
This does not imply that users have been forced to follow Mr Trump’s personal Instagram or Facebook accounts.
These official accounts are controlled by the White House and transferred to the incoming president and their team after an election.
So, anyone who had been following the official Mt Biden ‘potus’ (President of the United States) account would now automatically follow the Mr Trump ‘potus’ account.
However, this differs from being automatically forced to follow Mr Trump’s social media profiles.
The account details for these accounts show they are clearly labelled as ‘potus’, ‘vp’, and ‘flotus’.
All three official accounts were created in January 2025, while Mr Trump and Mr Vance’s personal accounts date back to 2013 and 2021, respectively.
The same applies to the Facebook accounts linked to Donald Trump, JD Vance, and Melania Trump.
In a post on the Meta social media platform Threads, Meta's communications director Andy Stone said: “The Facebook.com/POTUS and Facebook.com/WhiteHouse accounts are managed by the White House and they change when the occupant of the White House changes.”
The https://t.co/LunllS6D3s and https://t.co/ablkLiXAjw accounts are managed by the White House and they change when the occupant of the White House changes. https://t.co/w2cnzz28Gd
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) January 20, 2025
Mr Stone also responded to criticism of the dearth of #democrat search results in his posts on Monday.
He said that this problem was not limited to politically left-leaning hashtags, it impacted a variety of hashtags.
Mr Stone said on Threads: 'There's an issue affecting people's ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram — not just those on the left. We're working quickly to resolve this.'
A Meta representative told the Daily Mail that both '#conservative' and '#republicans' were blocked — although they did not explain why.
Meta told the Mail that it was investigating the cause of the hashtag error or bug.
There’s an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram - not just those on the left. We’re working quickly to resolve this. https://t.co/S3OywJVRZX
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) January 21, 2025
