Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
(L-R) Priscilla Chan, CEO of Meta and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025.
Saul Loeb Afp | Getty Images
Instagram users are complaining this week that they were forced Meta to be continued President Donald Trump social media accounts without their consent.
In a Threads post on Wednesday, a Meta representative said that users are seeing posts from @POTUS, @VP and @FLOTUS because those accounts have been removed when a presidential transition occurs in the United States.
“People have not been made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the president, the vice president or the first lady.” he wrote Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta. “These accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages will change.”
Users who followed the accounts will continue to follow, as well as the archive accounts of the former administration, when the transition of power takes place, Meta confirmed in an email. That includes the account for @WhiteHouse.
Trump’s inauguration on Monday marked the third transition from one administration to another. The Obama administration, which created many of the accounts that are used today, addressed the matter in a blog post before the 2016 election, which Trump also won.
“On Instagram and Facebook, the incoming White House will get access to the White House username, URL, and keep followers, but will start with no content on the timeline,” the Obama administration wrote . “An archive of White House content that has been posted on the Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will continue to be accessible to the public at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse.”
The Obama administration added that all posts and materials created by the accounts will be preserved with the National Archives and Records Administration and that new accounts will also be created to preserve the content.
Posts from accounts previously used by former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Jill Biden have been moved to @potus46archive, @vp46archive and @fotus46archive, respectively.
The political conversation has resumed on Meta’s platforms after a series of moves taken by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg which appeared to be aimed at appeasing President Trump.
Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and attended to event in Washington DC, too co-hosting a celebratory reception.
Zuckerberg this month announced several policy changes for Meta, including eliminating third-party fact-checking and complete the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion program. The company too appointed Joel Kaplana former Republican White House staffer, as its new policy chief, and Zuckerberg, in an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, said the benefits of masculinity.
“I think having a culture that celebrates aggression a little more has its merits,” Zuckerberg said on the podcast.
