**Why Are Users on Facebook Suddenly Following Donald Trump? Meta Responds**
If you noticed that your Facebook account inexplicably began following President Donald Trump this week, you’re not the only one. Yet, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, insists that this occurrence is not as concerning as it appears, attributing it to typical operational processes.
Recently, users of Facebook and Instagram have accused Meta of artificially boosting Trump’s follower numbers following Monday’s inauguration. Numerous users reported that their accounts were inexplicably following Trump, even though they had no intention of doing so. This led to widespread alarm and confusion.
Currently, the official Facebook pages for the President of the United States (POTUS) and the White House each have 11 million followers.
### Meta’s Clarification on Automatic Follows
Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, addressed the situation on Threads and X (previously Twitter), clarifying that users were not compelled to follow Trump or any members of the new administration. Rather, the official social media accounts of the White House were merely transitioned to represent the new administration.
“Those accounts are overseen by the White House, so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes,” Stone explained. “This is the same method we used during the last presidential handover.”
This essentially means that anyone who had been following former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, or former First Lady Jill Biden would now find themselves following their Trump administration equivalents.
### Understanding the Confusion
The confusion arises from how Meta manages transitions between administrations. While it may seem that the same accounts are being passed along, Meta actually creates entirely new pages for the incoming administration. These new pages take on the followers and URLs of the outgoing administration, effectively operating as if they are the same accounts. Concurrently, the previous administration’s pages are archived under new URLs. For instance, Biden’s presidential Facebook page and the corresponding White House page from his administration are now archived and accessible through different links.
Katie Harbath, a former director of public policy at Facebook, elaborated on this procedure: “My team set up the initial methods for this when Trump was elected in 2016, transferring the official accounts that President Obama’s team established when Facebook pages were originally created. The same process was followed during the transition from Trump to Biden. The old accounts are archived, and the followers remain, but the feed is reset. Most platforms operate this way.”
### Users Express Concerns
Despite Meta’s clarification, not all users are content. Some assert they were not following any political accounts prior but still found themselves following Trump. Others noted that the Trump administration accounts were newly created this month, raising doubts about the validity of the automatic follows. A few users even remarked that their follow history indicated they had just followed Trump recently, instead of being transferred over from the previous administration.
Meta’s public affairs director, Nkechi Nneji, responded to these worries, suggesting that certain users might have forgotten they had previously followed U.S. government accounts. “Meta doesn’t force users to follow any accounts, and we never have,” Nneji stated.
### Frustrations with Unfollowing
For those who do not wish to follow Trump, the process of unfollowing has been frustrating. Some have reported that even after unfollowing Trump’s accounts, they found themselves following him again shortly thereafter. Meta attributes this to delays in the transition process, with Stone warning that it may take additional time to opt out of or into updates from the new administration.
### A Wider Context
This controversy arises amidst increased scrutiny of Meta’s connections with Trump. The company has recently implemented several policy alterations that align with the new administration’s agenda. Trump, in turn, has exhibited a keen interest in social media metrics, with millions of views on his TikTok videos even influencing his choice to postpone a U.S. ban on the app.
Between Trump’s extensive executive orders and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s policy changes, the standard rules of engagement seem to be shifting. Nonetheless, Meta maintains that the automatic follows are not part of a larger strategy but are instead a regular aspect of the transition process.
### What Can You Do?
If you prefer not to receive updates from the Trump administration, you may need to exercise some patience. Meta suggests that the transition process may temporarily complicate efforts to unfollow these accounts. In the meantime, logging off from Facebook and Instagram might be the most effective way to avoid unwanted content.
While Meta insists that this is standard procedure, the incident has left many users questioning the transparency and ethics of the platform’s actions during political transitions.