Here’s why you might be automatically following Trump on Instagram, Facebook

(NEW YORK) -- In the days since President Donald Trump assumed office, many people online have begun expressing alarm to find they were unwittingly following Trump on Instagram and Facebook.

Across social media, posts have proliferated by people concerned after discovering they were automatically following accounts for Trump, as well as Vice President JD Vance, first lady Melania Trump and the White House.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, denied claims they forced users to follow the accounts.

The accounts are managed by the current presidential administration, and switch over when a new administration takes office, a spokesperson for Meta said.

Former President Joe Biden's account remains archived under another handle, @potus46archive.

"People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on Threads. "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."

Stone also addressed concerns that people were unable to follow the accounts, saying, "It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands."

The company made the same transition in 2021, handing the Facebook and Instagram accounts for the president, vice president, first lady and White House from Trump's administration to that of President Joe Biden.

The same process took place in 2017, when President Barack Obama's administration passed its accounts on to the Trump administration.

"In 2017, we worked with both the Obama Administration and incoming Trump Administration to make sure the transition of their Facebook and Instagram accounts was seamless on January 20th, and we expect to do the same here," Meta, then known as Facebook, told Reuters in 2020.

Instagram users also expressed concern they were temporarily unable to search for the words "Democrat" or "Democrats."

Meta said they were aware of the issue, and said it was a glitch affecting "a number of different hashtags on Instagram -- not just those on the left."

"We’re working quickly to resolve this," Stone, the Meta spokesperson, said in another post.

The online uproar comes on the heels of the inauguration, where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- along with several other high-profile tech CEOs -- were in attendance.

Meta announced earlier this month they would end fact-checking on their platforms, which was put in place after the 2016 election.

Critics have accused the recent move of being a partisan effort to appease Trump, who has repeatedly slammed the company for alleged anti-conservative bias.

In a video posted by the company, Zuckerberg said fact-checking had proven to be "too politically biased" and had destroyed "more trust than they've created."

"The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech," Zuckerberg added.

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