Meta accused of ‘forcing’ people to follow Trump and Vance on social media platforms

Meta has denied claims that it is helping to increase support of the new administration on its platforms by “forcing” people to follow the president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance.

Users on Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta, have expressed concern in recent days that their accounts have automatically followed Trump’s and Vance’s pages. Many, including singer Demi Lovato, have claimed that when they unfollow the pair, their accounts seemingly start to refollow the pages again, without their consent, just a few hours later.

Leading up to Trump’s inauguration on Monday (20 January), many users also pointed out that the Democrat hashtag on the platforms appeared to have been blocked, with an automatic “we’ve hidden these results” message showing up in place of posts and content.

Earlier this month, Meta dumped its fact-checking programmes and moderation of certain topics, such as immigration and gender.

In response to the claims, Meta communications director Andy Stone took to X/Twitter, which is owned by Trump donor Elon Musk, saying the accounts in question were “managed by the White House and they change when the occupant of the White House changes.”

Many users were not happy with that response, noting pages for the previous Biden administration have now been archived as separate accounts.

The https://t.co/LunllS6D3s and https://t.co/ablkLiXAjw accounts are managed by the White House and they change when the occupant of the White House changes. https://t.co/w2cnzz28Gd

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) January 20, 2025

“Then why have I had to unfollow them multiple times, [because] y’all keep adding them back?” one disgruntled user asked.

A second person claimed: “If that were the case, then everyone’s follows would have shown up immediately. If we changed our org’s name, all the likes/followers would simply still be there. But with the Potus [president of the United States] account, the followings increased throughout the day.”

Someone also demanded: “This should be more broadly messaged within these Facebook pages, via an info modal, as the recent changes to Facebook policies plus [Meta chairman Mark] Zuckerberg’s appearance at the inauguration makes it seem like this is a concerted effort by Facebook to center Trump and the GOP [the Republican Party].”

Stone also responded to the claim that the Democrat hashtag was being blocked, saying Meta was having “an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram, not just those on the left”, adding: “We’re working quickly to resolve this.”

Earlier this month, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would no longer use third-party fact-checkers or moderate posts on topic “that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate”. A community notes system, similar to that seen on X, would be used instead.

The changes, which Zuckerberg said were made with the aim of “restoring free expression”, will mean users can label LGBTQ+ people mentally ill under an updated hateful content policy.

“We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality, and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird’,” the new rules read.

Meta has also rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and removed Pride and LGBTQ+ themes from Facebook Messenger.

Meta responded to a PinkNews request for comment by directing us to Andy Stone’s earlier comments on X, which we have detailed above.

UPDATE: Since this article was published, Meta’s communications director has shared more detail and clarification about the issues mentioned above on Threads.

He wrote: “People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady. Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes. This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”