Meta, the company that owns social media networks Facebook and Instagram, has denied forcing users to follow official accounts belonging to senior figures in the new Trump administration.
Some platform users complained after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday that they were “automatically” forced to follow the new president, as well as Vice President JD Vance and first lady Melania Trump.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone explained that the accounts are managed by the White House, which has updated them to reflect the new position holders.
“This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition,” he wrote in a statement.
The bills are labeled Potus — short for “President of the United States” — as well as VicePresident and Flotus, an acronym for First Lady.
Archived versions of the pages show that the Potus and Flotus accounts previously carried the name and official portrait of Joe Biden and Jill Biden, respectively.
Mr. Stone added that “it may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”
Trump became US president for a second term on Monday and moved quickly to issue a series of executive orders and directives confirming his policy agenda – ranging from withdrawal from the World Health Organization until the declaration of a national emergency on the border with Mexico.
They attended his inauguration some of the most influential tech billionairesincluding Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and X boss Elon Musk, who also has an advisory role in the new administration.
Trump has previously been fiercely critical of Meta, who is banned from 2021 for what he described as his “praise for people who were involved in violence” during the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
The president and his allies have also accused the company of working with the Biden administration to cover up reports of allegations about Biden’s son Hunter and some content related to the Covid pandemic. Mr. Zuckerberg said he regrets the decision.
In August, Trump wrote in a book that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
However, since Trump won the election in early November, Mr. Zuckerberg appears to have bowed to him, dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence at the end of the month and donating $1 million (£786,000) to his inauguration a few weeks later.
Meta also said earlier this month that it would end third-party fact-checking in favor of an approach similar to X’s Community Notes, in an apparent attempt to respond to some of Trump’s previous criticism.
The company said this marks a return to its “core commitment to free expression.”
