Meta denies 'forcing' people to follow Trump on social media
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Facebook owner Meta has denied claims from some users that they have been "forced" to follow social media accounts belonging to the Trump administration. Users on Facebook and Instagram have claimed they found they were "automatically" following the official accounts of Donald Trump and JD Vance following their inauguration on Monday.
The claims come after Mark Zuckerberg's Meta made a number of policy changes to its social media apps which better aligned them with the Trump administration. But Meta has denied it forced anyone to follow the accounts, and highlighted that the president and vice president's accounts are linked to the US offices rather than the individual, meaning supporters who followed those accounts for the previous president and vice president still do so despite Mr Trump and Mr Vance taking them over from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Some users had made further claims that they were being forced to follow the accounts, and had been unable to unfollow them when trying to do so. Read more:Meta offers creators $5,000 to join Facebook and InstagramWho might buy TikTok after Trump's ultimatum?.
Singer Gracie Abrams, in a post to her Instagram Stories, said she had to "unfollow @vp and @potus three separate times today because Meta kept automatically refollowing the accounts". Nick Clegg to step down from Meta role - with prominent Republican Joel Kaplan to replace him.
