*

Meta users report automatically re-following president, VP

accounts after unfollowing

*

Meta says account rollovers occur with new administration

By Doyinsola Oladipo

NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Some Meta social

media users said on Wednesday that their accounts re-followed

the profiles of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance

and first lady Melania Trump after they had unfollowed those

accounts once Trump took office for his second term.

When a presidential administration changes, the official

White House social media accounts roll over to the new elected

officials. That happened in 2017 and 2021, when Trump succeeded

Barack Obama as president, and then when Joe Biden succeeded

Trump.

However, some users said that even after unfollowing the

president, vice president and first lady accounts since Monday,

they found they were soon following those accounts again, in

some cases after unfollowing more than once or blocking the

accounts.

"I, like others, repeatedly unfollowed Trump and Vance on

Monday, only to discover that I was following them again," said

Facebook user Anna Springer on Threads, which is also owned by

Meta. "Not sure if it was just a glitch or something

intentional, but it definitely happened."

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Meta communications director Andy Stone said on X that

people who had been following the Biden administration's

official accounts rolled over to the same official accounts

under the Trump administration.

"People were not made to automatically follow any of the

official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice

President or First Lady," Stone said on X. "Those accounts are

managed by the White House so with a new administration, the

content on those pages changes."

"It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to

go through as these accounts change hands," Stone said on

Threads.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

American singer Demi Lovato posted a photo to her Instagram

story of her following the vice president. "I have unfollowed

this guy twice today," she wrote to her 150 million followers.

Others reported they were also following first lady Melania

Trump without choosing to do so.

"Why did my Facebook automatically start following

Melania Trump this (morning)? What are you doing?" actor and

comedian Sarah Colonna said on Threads on Tuesday, tagging Mark

Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, in her post.

Social-media users follow other users to see their posts,

usually by clicking a single button. The more followers an

account has, the wider the audience that sees their messages.