Meta, which owns social media networks Facebook and Instagram, has denied forcing users to follow official accounts belonging to key figures in the new Trump administration.
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, some platform users complained that they were “automatically” following the new president, Vice President J.D. Vance and First Lady Melania Trump. Ta.
Mehta spokesman Andy Stone said the account is managed by the White House and has been updated to reflect the new official.
“These are the same steps we took during the last presidential transition,” he said in a statement.
The account has the handle Flotus, which is an acronym for “President of the United States,” as well as Vice President and First Lady.
Archived versions of the page show that the names and official portraits of Joe Biden and Jill Biden, respectively, previously appeared on the Potus and Flotus accounts, respectively.
Stone added that “follow and unfollow requests may take longer to complete as these accounts change hands.”
Trump was sworn in as U.S. president for the second time on Monday, issuing a series of executive orders and directives asserting his political agenda, from withdrawing from the World Health Organization to declaring a national emergency at the Mexican border. We started right away.
His inauguration was attended by some of the most influential tech billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, and Elon Musk, the head of Company X, who will also serve as an advisor to the new administration. Attended.
President Trump has been harshly critical of Mehta, expelling him in 2021 after he said he had “praised those involved in the violence” during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. .
The president and his allies also accused the company of cooperating with the Biden administration to suppress reporting on allegations about Biden’s son Hunter and some content surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Zuckerberg said he regretted the decision.
In August, Trump wrote in a book that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
However, since Trump’s election victory in early November, Zuckerberg seems to have warmed to Trump, and at the end of the month, he dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago mansion and attended Trump’s inauguration. He donated $1 million (£786,000) to the ceremony. A few weeks later.
Meta announced earlier this month that it would end third-party fact-checking in favor of an approach similar to Company X’s community note, apparently in an attempt to address some of President Trump’s previous criticisms.
The company said this marks a return to its “fundamental commitment to freedom of expression.”
