Since Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Facebook and Instagram customers have been noticing that they’re now following the official accounts of each the president and vice president.
Meta — the mother or father firm of Instagram and Facebook — has pointed out that the POTUS, FLOTUS, and VP accounts are all attributed to the White House, and that when the administration adjustments, the accounts are mechanically transferred.
Meta Communications Director Andy Stone has commented that Meta is experiencing “a problem affecting folks’s potential to seek for numerous completely different hashtags on Instagram — not simply these on the left. We’re working shortly to resolve this,” he added on Threads.
However, this doesn’t account for the truth that customers on-line have mentioned that they have been by no means following any official political accounts, even throughout the Biden administration.
The POTUS and VP accounts additionally include a label that claims that they have been each activated in January 2025, which some customers have identified. The outdated VP and POTUS accounts, utilized by Kamala Harris and former president Joe Biden, are nonetheless accessible on the Instagram app and may be adopted individually from the seemingly new VP and POTUS accounts.
At Monday’s inauguration, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was seated with different tech leaders and CEOs — in entrance of Trump’s personal cupboard picks, seemingly indicating a detailed alignment with the brand new presidential administration.
And now, some celebs have referred to as out Meta — saying that though they’re manually unfollowing the accounts, the issue stays.
Demi Lovato shared a publish on their story yesterday from an account claiming that Meta was making customers auto-follow JD Vance and President Trump.
Gracie Abrams was one other celeb who shared an analogous sentiment. Yesterday the “That’s So True” singer uploaded a narrative that learn, “hiya! I needed to unfollow @VP and @POTUS three (3) separate times as we speak as a result of @meta saved mechanically refollowing the accounts. How curious!”
“Had to dam them to verify I’m nowhere close to that. Sharing in case that is taking place to your account as effectively xoxo,” she added.
Users on-line have observed that a number of sudden celebs are additionally now following one or each of the accounts and are speculating that Meta’s alleged “refollowing” will be the trigger.
One person on X identified that Rihanna was now following the VP account, regardless of not following @POTUS. Rihanna was a notable critic of the Trump marketing campaign, calling out Republicans for “burning poll bins” again in November.
And it’s not simply Riri — since Monday, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, and Hailey Bieber have all been referred to as out by customers on-line for following Vance. Hailey has since unfollowed the account.
We have reached out to Meta for remark concerning the alleged re-following points, however haven’t but acquired a response.
What are your ideas? Have you additionally observed that you simply’re now following the POTUS and VP accounts on Instagram? LMK within the feedback.
Content Source: www.buzzfeed.com