(LR) Priscilla Chan, Meta and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
This week, Instagram users are complaining that they are being forced to dead To follow President Donald Trump’s social media accounts without their consent.
In a Threads post on Wednesday, a Meta representative said users are seeing posts from @POTUS, @VP, and @FLOTUS because these accounts are delivered when a presidential transition occurs in the United States.
“People were not forced to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts of the President, Vice President, or First Lady.” books Andy Stone, Meta spokesman. He added: “These accounts are managed by the White House, so with the new administration, the content of those pages changes.”
Users who previously followed the accounts will continue to follow them, as well as the previous administration’s archive accounts, when the transition of power occurs, Meta confirmed in an email. This includes the @WhiteHouse account.
Trump’s inauguration on Monday marked the third handover from one administration to another. The Obama administration, which created many of the accounts used today, took up the matter in Blog post Before 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 follower retention, but will start with no timeline content,” the Obama administration wrote. “The archive of White House content posted on the Obama White House’s Instagram and Facebook will remain publicly available at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse.”
The Obama administration added that all posts and materials created by the accounts will be preserved with the National Archives and Records Administration and that new accounts will also be created to preserve the content.
The posts moved from accounts previously used by former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former First Lady Jill Biden to @potus46archive, @vp46archive, and @fotus46archive, respectively.
Political chatter has exploded on Meta platforms following a series of moves by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that appear aimed at appeasing President Trump.
Zuckerberg donates $1 million to… Trump’s inauguration and civilized region event in Washington, D.C., and even co-hosted a celebratory reception.
Zuckerberg this month announced several Meta policy changes, including eliminating third-party fact-checking and ending the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion program. The company also named Joel Kaplan, a former Republican White House staffer, as its new chief policy officer, and Zuckerberg, in an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, touted the benefits of masculinity.
“I think having a culture that celebrates aggression a little more has its own advantages,” Zuckerberg said on the podcast.
He watches: Critics criticize Zuckerberg’s move toward MAGA