Reasons Why Your Facebook Account Automatically Followed Trump.
Meta assures that appearances can be deceiving.
Meta has responded to accusations that its platform forced Facebook users to follow President Donald Trump's account after his recent inauguration. Several users noticed that their accounts had begun following the president without their consent, raising suspicions about the company's intent to artificially increase Trump's follower count.
The situation is part of a series of changes that Meta has made to its policies to align with the new administration. This move has been interpreted by many as an attempt to win favor with Trump's administration. User concerns intensified as the president has expressed interest in the numbers representing his popularity on social media.
Andy Stone, Meta's communications director, addressed the criticism, clarifying that no one is being forced to follow political accounts; rather, it is a common transition process. With changes in administration, official White House profiles, such as those of the president and first lady, are transferred to the new management, resulting in those who followed the previous occupants of those roles also ending up following the new administration.
Despite this explanation, some users remain dissatisfied. There are those who claim they didn't follow any political accounts and yet found themselves automatically following Trump. Others have pointed out that the Trump administration's accounts were created only recently, adding confusion to the process.
Even Nkechi Nneji, Meta's director of public affairs, suggested that some of these users may have forgotten they were following government accounts. In this context, former Facebook public policy director Katie Harbath explained that while it appears that accounts are simply transferred, in reality, new accounts are created that retain the same followers and URLs as the previous ones, which facilitates the transition process.
However, the process is not as straightforward as simply unfollowing accounts that are no longer desired. Some users have expressed frustration when trying to disconnect from Trump's account, only to find that they end up following it again. According to Stone, the process of opting out of Trump's updates may take time due to these administrative changes, suggesting that users consider temporarily disconnecting from the platform if they prefer not to see such information.