A couple of days after Trump's second inauguration, which saw him become the first convicted felon sworn in as President of the United States, some Instagram users are claiming their accounts have automatically followed Trump and his Vice President, JD Vance.
Others have said they've attempted to unfollow the handles @POTUS and @VP multiple times but they keep being resubscribed, even when blocking the accounts.
Singer Gracie Abrams posted about the confusion too, writing on her Stories that she has had to "unfollow @VP [the Instagram account associated with the Vice President] and @POTUS three (3) separate times today because @meta kept automatically refollowing accounts. How curious! Had to block them in order to make sure I am nowhere near that. Sharing in case this is happening to your accounts as well."
So, what the heck is going on here?
Is Instagram forcing people to follow Trump and Vance?
Well, when Cosmopolitan UK originally reached out to the Meta team to ask, we were redirected to a post on Threads (Meta's X equivalent) from Andy Stone, part of the Meta communications team.
It reads: "A reminder: the Facebook.com/POTUS and Facebook.com/White… accounts are managed by the White House. They change when the occupant of the White House changes."
Essentially, Meta's response to the confusion is that each time the President changes, the one-for-all-presidents handle/account—like @POTUS and @VP—swap hands too, and the former President's posts are archived. However, this didn't explain the concerns from users who say they've actively unfollowed the accounts in a bid to disengage with posts from Trump and Vance.
Meta addressed these specific reports in a statement obtained by Cosmopolitan UK, denying any forced following. "People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady," said a Meta spokesperson. "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."
It's unfortunate timing for the platform to glitch, given many people feeling deeply uncomfortable at tech oligarchs, who have great influence over the information social media users have access to, such as Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder and now CEO of Meta, which owns Instagram and Threads), Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos appearing front and center at the inauguration.
It also comes off the back of Trump "rescuing" TikTok and halting the ban of the platform in the US, which some have suggested feels very... suspect.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
