
Shortly after Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the United States, some users found that they were suddenly following the official accounts of President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and First Lady Melania Trump, even if they never followed them in the first place. This led to some users believing that Meta might be forcing users to follow the President and other's accounts.
Just a heads up, Meta auto followed DJT’s new POTUS account on Facebook for me. I did not do this myself. pic.twitter.com/gTcW6m3N6F
— JDP (@jd_pittman) January 21, 2025
Meta came back to explain the situation, saying it wasn't a glitch but part of its usual process during a presidential transition, and if someone had followed these accounts in the past, they would still be following them after the transfer unless they actively unfollowed them again. Meta said this process has been in place for years and was also used during previous transitions between administrations. as per the explanation by its spokesperson, Andy Stone.
However, some users further added that despite actively unfollowing these accounts, they once again found themselves automatically following them again. Stone acknowledged that it might take some time for unfollow requests to process as the accounts change hands.
Recently, users also reported that Meta was intentionally hiding pro-Democratic hashtags on its platforms, which it also said is a glitch and that it was working to restore the search results to normal.
Meta also faced criticism for relaxing its guidelines on hate speech when it introduced X-style Community Notes for its platforms in the U.S., which although wouldn't work on paid posts, like advertisements. This could potentially allow advertisers to just get away from posting false ads if they paid Meta for them. Meta also said that fact-checkers would continue their work for now in regions other than the U.S. and it would refine its Community Notes before launching it to other regions.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been seen strengthening ties with Trump, including attending his inauguration and contributing $1 million to his inaugural fund.
via CBS News
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