Meta refuses to force users to follow Trump administration accounts

Meta, the company that owns social media sites Facebook and Instagram, has refused to force users to follow official accounts belonging to senior figures in the new Trump administration.

Some users of the platforms had complained after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday that they had been “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 were managed by the White House, which had 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 accounts bear the handles Potus – which stands for “president of the United States” – as well as Vice President and Flotus, an acronym for the First Lady.

Archived versions of the pages show Potus and Flotus accounts that previously bore 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 be completed as these accounts change hands”.

Trump became US president for a second term on Monday and quickly set about issuing a series of executive orders and directives asserting his political agenda – from withdrawing from the World Health Organization to declare a national emergency at the border with Mexico.

His inauguration was attended by 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 highly critical of Meta, which banned him in 2021 for what it described as his “praise of people involved in violence” during the January 6 unrest at the US Capitol.

The president and his allies also accused the company of colluding with the Biden administration to suppress reports of allegations about Biden’s son, Hunter, and some content surrounding the Covid pandemic. Mr. Zuckerberg said he regretted the decision.

In August, Trump wrote in a book that Mr. Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

Since Trump’s election victory in early November, however, it appears that Mr. Zuckerberg has been enthusiastic about him, dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence at the end of the month and donate $1m (£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 address some of Trump’s past criticisms.

The company said this marked a return to its “fundamental commitment to freedom of expression”.