Meta on Wednesday pushed back against claims its platforms were automatically forcing users to follow the Instagram accounts of President Trump and Vice President Vance following Inauguration Day.
Shortly after Trump and Vance were sworn into office, some users posted online claiming their Instagram or Facebook accounts followed Trump and Vance automatically. Some insisted they never followed the accounts and called on Meta to explain what happened.
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Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, stated Wednesday users were “not made to automatically” follow any of the official accounts for Trump, Vance or First Lady Melania Trump.
“Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes,” he wrote on Threads. “This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition.”
Some users still claimed they never followed former President Biden or former Vice President Harris in the first place, while others said when they tried to unfollow the accounts, the platforms were not allowing them to do so.
Stone said it “may take some time” for the follow and unfollow requests to fully process during the transition process.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram faced additional scrutiny earlier this week after some users reported searches for the terms “Democrat” or “Democrats” yielded a “results hidden” message.
Stone said Tuesday this issue was not limited to just those two terms.
“There’s an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram – not just those on the left. We’re working quickly to resolve this,” Stone wrote on Threads.
The scrutiny follows a tumultuous few weeks for Meta, which was placed under the political microscope when it eliminated its fact-checking programs earlier this month.
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In doing so, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s platforms would now rely on a community notes system in what he called an effort to embrace free speech.
Days later, Meta announced an internal move to slash the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team and roll back several related programs.
Some Democrats were quick to accuse Zuckerberg of capitulating to Trump in the lead up to his inauguration.
Zuckerberg was one of many technology leaders to attend Trump’s inauguration, and Meta donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural fund.
