(L-R) Priscilla Chan, CEO of Meta and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on 20 January 2025.
Saul Loeb Afp | Getty Images
Instagram users are complaining this week that they are being forced Meta follow up President Donald Trump social media accounts without their permission.
In a Threads post on Wednesday, a Meta representative said that users are seeing posts from @POTUS, @VP and @FLOTUS because those accounts are given when there is a presidential transition in the US
“People have not been forced to auto-follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady,” write Andy Stone, spokesman for Meta. “These accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content of these pages will change.”
Users who followed the previous accounts will continue, as well as the archived accounts of the previous administration, when the power transfer takes place, Meta confirmed in an email. That includes the account for @WhiteHouse.
Trump's inauguration on Monday marked the third transition from one administration to the next. The Obama administration, which created many of the accounts in use today, addressed the issue in blog post ahead of the 2016 election, which Trump also won.
“On Instagram and Facebook, the incoming White House will have access to the White House username, URL, and keep the followers, but will start with no content on the timeline, ” wrote the Obama administration. “An archive of White House content posted to the Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will remain publicly accessible at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse.”
The Obama administration said that all posts and materials created by the accounts would be preserved have new accounts created to preserve their content.
Posts from the accounts used by former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Jill Biden have moved to @potus46archive, @vp46archive and @fotus46archive, respectively.
Political talk has picked up on the Meta platforms following a series of moves made by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg that seemed to be aimed at infuriating President Trump.
Zuckerberg he donated $1 million to President Trump and attended the event in Washington DC, viz co-hosting a celebration.
Zuckerberg this month announced several policy changes for Meta, including eliminate third-party fact checking and complete the company's diversity, equity and inclusion program. The company too Appoint Joel Kaplanformer Republican White House staffer, as his new policy chief, and Zuckerberg, in an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast, talking about the benefits of masculinity.
“I think a culture that celebrates the aggression a little more has its own benefits,” Zuckerberg said on the podcast.
