 "Did you find yourself 'automatically' following Donald Trump on Instagram? Here's why")
If you’ve suddenly noticed that you’re following President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump on social media without ever hitting the follow button, you’re certainly not the only one.
Following the recent inauguration of the Republican president, thousands of Instagram and Facebook users have voiced their surprise after discovering they were automatically following the new administration on the platforms, despite not subscribing to their accounts.
“Automatically making everyone follow him….WTF,” wrote an user, while another added: “How am I automatically following….Mark! What do you have going on?”
One user commented, “I have now gone and unfollowed him twice and they keep switching it back to ‘following’. I guess maybe if I block him that would work. That’ll be my next step.”
However, this wasn’t a glitch—it’s all part of a planned transition. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has clarified that this change is a deliberate move as part of the handover process from the previous administration.
So, what exactly is happening? Let’s break it down.
It’s all part of the plan
Just like the federal government must manage the transfer of power between administrations, Meta also has its own process to handle the transition.
“People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President, or First Lady,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone clarified in a post on Threads. “Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those pages changes.”
For years, platforms like Meta and X (formerly known as Facebook and Twitter) have had to adapt to the changing leadership, managing social media accounts associated with the presidency.
The process became more crucial after Barack Obama took office in 2008, when social media was fully embraced as a way to connect with voters. By 2016, these social media giants had to figure out how to transfer these official accounts to the new administration.
Meta and X decided that the official accounts for the President (POTUS), Vice President, and First Lady on Facebook, Instagram, and X would be handed over to the incoming administration while retaining the followers. This meant that anyone who followed President Obama in 2016 automatically found themselves following President Trump when he took office in 2017.
Obama’s posts were archived under a separate handle, while Trump’s account was reset, starting fresh without any of Obama’s past posts.
The same process happened again in 2020 when Joe Biden took over the official POTUS account. And after Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the switch took place once more. So, if you’re now seeing his posts in your feed, that’s why. (FYI, Joe Biden’s handle is now archived as @potus46archive and is also preserved with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) ).
As of Tuesday, Biden’s archived POTUS account had 11 million followers on Facebook, which matches Trump’s official POTUS account.
Can’t unfollow? Here’s why
A number of social media users have expressed frustration after attempting to unfollow the new administration’s accounts, only to find that the app wasn’t allowing them to do so. Meta has given an explanation.
The company clarified that it “may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.” It’s possible that the high volume of unfollow requests during the transition is causing issues with processing them all.
Meta assured users that the problem will be resolved soon, although it did not provide specific details on why the delays were occurring.
Are Democrats being censored?
On Tuesday, users began noticing that they were unable to search for posts with the hashtag “#democrats” on some of Meta’s platforms. When they typed “#Democrat” or “#Democrats,” they were met with a “results hidden” message, leading to accusations of political bias.
Meta quickly responded, clarifying that this was not intentional. The company explained that it had made an unfortunate error and was working to resolve it. Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone said that the “issue [is] affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram — not just those on the left.”
However, some users have also reported limited results when searching for “Republicans” compared to “Republican.” The company has acknowledged this and is urgently working to fix the issue.
Zuckerberg’s Meta-morphosis
Mark Zuckerberg , the CEO of Meta, has seen a dramatic shift in his relationship with President Trump.
In the past, Trump was highly critical of Zuckerberg and Facebook, calling the platform “anti-Trump” back in 2017. However, it seems that this tension has eased in recent years.
In November, Zuckerberg dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, making efforts to mend both his and his company’s relationship with the former president after the election. Meta also donated $1 million (£786,000) to an inauguration fund for Trump.
Zuckerberg also attended Trump’s inauguration, alongside other high-profile tech CEOs, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
In recent times, Zuckerberg has made notable shifts at Meta, including announcing plans to end the company’s partnerships with independent fact-checkers. He cited “too much censorship” and said, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.” He also replaced Meta’s top policy executive with a Republican and added Trump ally Dana White to the board.
These changes have raised concerns over the potential spread of misinformation on Meta’s platforms.
Zuckerberg has also revealed plans to end Meta’s diversity initiatives, aligning with Trump’s push to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, he claimed that excessive moderation had eroded trust.
Critics argue that these moves reflect a significant rightward shift for the company. Zuckerberg has yet to directly comment on the backlash.
With input from agencies
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