Why are people being forced to follow Donald Trump on Instagram? | The Independent
Category: News & Politics
Via: tacos • one month ago • 13 commentsBy: Andrew Griffin (The Independent)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Users including Gracie Abrams have said they never asked to follow presidential account - and are unable to stop
Andrew GriffinWednesday 22 January 2025 12:10 ESTComments
(Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Your support helps us to tell the story
Read moreSupport Now
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference. Read more
Meta says that people have been automatically left following Donald Trump's account - and admitted that some of them are unable to stop.
It suggested that technical problems meant that some people were currently unable to stop following Mr Trump's official presidential account. But it made clear that users had not been automatically made to follow those accounts in the first place, as has been suggested.
Since Donald Trump became president, he also gained control of the official @Potus and @VP accounts on Instagram and Facebook. That led to complaints from users that they were following Mr Trump or his vice president JD Vance, despite not having asked to, since they were following those accounts when they were fronted by other politicians.
However, some - including singer Gracie Abrams - said that they had not only been forced to follow the account but were unable to stop doing so. She said that she had been required to unfollow the account three different times, and had been forced to block the account to ensure that she was not associated with it anymore.
Now, Meta has admitted that some people are having trouble unfollowing those accounts, but suggested that it would be fixed.
"It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands," said Meta communication director Andy Stone, in a statement in which he addressed the complaints more broadly.
"People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady," he wrote 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. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands."
Earlier, Mr Stone had tweeted a "reminder" that those official accounts were run by the White House and therefore changed hands when the occupant of the office changed. Meta had at the time been understood to be investigating claims that it was not possible to unfollow those accounts.
More about
Donald TrumpMetaInstagramFacebook
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments
Tags
Who is online
69 visitors
Kneel before Zod!
trump needs to control all of social media before he begins his media campaign to serve another term after this one ...
lol
I still think it's a glitch altho if I was into conspiracy theories...
As glitches go, it’s oddly specific. No one is being forced to follow me on Instagram.
That's a shame! You're way more fun than trmp!
The guy who owns Instagram was sitting up front the other day, looking at Bezos girlfriends bosoms.
LMAO , i was just reading how bill Clinton was caught checking out Carrie Underwoods caboose and trying but not quite being able to look away and not get caught by his seat mate. as i scrolled the story i came on a reel of her singing in the rotunda , America the beautiful, and low and behold there was jolting joe in the front row , and unless he was asleep on his feet , it definitely looked like he was checking out ... you know the bottom line? maaybe he was looking down to make sure no one tied his shoe laces together ? Might have been snow on the roof , but there was a fire in the boiler for a min .
All i could think of was that gag reel from grumpy old men , he is taking the skin boat to tuna town , he is taking the wood to the beaver , he is entering the holiest of holies ...burgess meredith cracked me up .and thats the voice i heard in my head when i thought of it .
Another one i read and actually saw during the inauguration was Barron Trump shaking hands with Joe Biden , Biden was smiling , then the smile disappeared after Barron said something to him. I betting with it being on camera , it was Barron telling joe his fly was down .
isn't that when the penguin is in the grocery store...?
Sounds like a mental malfunction to me but i waste little time on that forum.
For good reason I guess ….
I don't waste any time on it at all.
Not worth it.
Way i see it , its most likely the algorhythm or AI being used by whatever app it is .
My cell has the smart news app which i use , right after trumps swearing in the phone and apps did an update . all of a sudden on my news app i was following Joe Biden and AOC, i didnt do that , but likely because of the news stories i had read within the app, it must of thought i should be following those individuals so it signed me up to follow them .
no big deal , a simple click of unfollow and its back to what i set it at to follow.
annoying yes . a big deal or some conspiracy? nah.