Meta Denies Claims Company Is ‘Forcing’ Facebook and Instagram Accounts To Follow Donald Trump
Meta is pushing back after Facebook and Instagram users claimed to have received notifications that their accounts had automatically followed the official pages of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance without their consent.
On Tuesday Michigan-based media nonprofit Distill Social took to X to relay user reports that Meta was “forcing accounts to follow Donald Trump” in a “blatant violation of user autonomy.”
Responding to the post, Meta communications director Andy Stone responded directly to Distill Media and clarified that official accounts such as “POTUS” and “White House” are “change when the occupant of the White House changes.” In short, users who followed these accounts under the Biden administration were automatically transitioned to the new administration’s pages “managed by the White House.”
Former Facebook employee Katie Harbath gave an explainer on Instagram that this account transition system had been in place since Trump’s 2016 victory and was similarly applied in 2020.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFEHk39y8N2/?igsh=d3p0NXAzd3cyNDU2
The outrage, however, also came as Instagram users also voiced concerns that the platform was blocking the hashtag #democrat.
Having to manage the backlash over the further controversy, Stone took to X again to share that Meta was experiencing “an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram — not just those on the left,” and assured that the company was “working quickly to resolve this.”
The controversy comes as Meta faces scrutiny over recent policy shifts.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a move to replace Meta’s traditional fact-checking system with a user-driven model similar to X’s Community Notes, arguing that fact-checkers had been “too politically biased.” Meta also rolled back several diversity initiatives, including the disbanding of its diversity, equity, and inclusion team.
Zuckerberg’s apparent political shift has been notable since Trump won the 2024 presidential election, visiting the president at Mar-a-Lago, criticizing the Biden administration on Joe Rogan’s podcast and attending Trump’s inauguration.
