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(L-R) Priscilla Chan, CEO of Meta and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg and Lauren Sanchez at the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025.
Sol Loeb Afp | Getty Images
Instagram users have been complaining this week that they’re being coerced Meta to follow President Donald Trump social media accounts without their consent.
In a Threads post on Wednesday, a Meta spokesperson said users are seeing posts from @POTUS, @VP and @FLOTUS because those accounts are deleted when the US president transitions
“People were not forced to automatically follow the official Facebook or Instagram accounts of the president, vice president or first lady,” wrote Andy Stone, spokesperson for Meta. “These accounts are managed by the White House, so the content of these pages is changing with the new administration.”
Users who previously subscribed to the accounts will continue to subscribe to them, as well as archived accounts from the former administration, when the transition takes place, Meta confirmed in an email. This includes the @WhiteHouse account.
Trump’s inauguration on Monday was the third transfer from one administration to another. The Obama administration, which created many of the accounts in use today, addressed the issue blog post on the eve of the 2016 election, which Trump also won.
“On Instagram and Facebook, the new White House will gain access to the White House username, URL, and retain followers, but will start with no timeline content,” the Obama administration wrote. “An archive of White House content that has been shared on Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will continue to be available to the public at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse.”
The Obama administration added that all messages and materials created by the accounts will be stored at the National Archives and Records Administration, and new accounts will be created to preserve the content.
Posts from accounts previously 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 chatter has erupted on the Meta platforms following a series of moves made by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg which appeared to be aimed at placating President Trump.
Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and attended on event in Washington, DC, even holding a festive reception together.
This month, Zuckerberg announced several changes to Meta’s policies, including exclusion of fact-checking by third parties and ending the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion program. Company too appointed Joel Kaplanthe former Republican White House staffer, as the new policy chief, and Zuckerberg, speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast, touted the virtues of courage.
“I think a culture that values aggression a little bit more has its benefits,” Zuckerberg said on the podcast.
