Instagram and Facebook users claim their accounts automatically followed Donald Trump, JD Vance and Melania Trump after the inauguration.
On social media, users have complained that Meta is ‘forcing’ them to follow the new US president.
On
Fears of interference grew after users reported that Instagram appeared to block searches for ‘#Democrat’, while ‘#Republican’ returned millions of results.
Searching for “Democrat” or Democratic political figures like Bernie Sanders returned the message: “We have hidden these results.
“Results for the term you searched may contain sensitive content.”
However, Meta has hit back at claims of bias, claiming these changes are all part of standard procedure.
This is what’s really going on.
Instagram and Facebook users claim their accounts automatically followed Donald Trump (pictured), JD Vance and Melania Trump after the inauguration

On X, many users complained that Instagram was letting “everyone” follow Donald Trump’s new account

One commenter said Meta “forced” people to follow Donald Trump and JD Vance after the president’s inauguration next Monday
Concerns about political interference began Monday after Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
Instagram and Facebook users were particularly concerned that they appeared to be following the official accounts of President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.
It seemed to many that Meta had forced them to follow these accounts without the user having a choice.
Another added, “Hey, if you have an Instagram account, go see if you follow these two Vance and Trump accounts. Somehow they get you to follow them without actually pressing the follow button.”
Similarly, Democratic Congressman Eric Sorensen wrote in a post on X: “This morning @facebook started serving me all kinds of right-wing stuff in my feed.
‘When I went to manage the content preferences, I saw that I should automatically follow Trump yesterday. Am I the only one?’
Fortunately, there is a simple explanation for the change.
The accounts users followed were not the personal accounts of Trump, Vance and Melania, but the official accounts of the President, Vice President and First Lady.

Democratic Congressman Eric Sorensen said he saw ‘all kinds of right-wing things’ on Facebook after having to follow Trump
These accounts are managed by the White House and are passed on to the new president and his team after elections.
That means that anyone who followed the official Potus account of Joe Biden (President of the United States) would automatically follow the Potus account of Donald Trump.
However, this is not the same as automatically being forced to follow Donald Trump’s personal Instagram or Facebook accounts.
Looking at the account details for these accounts, they are clearly identified as ‘potus’, ‘vp’ and ‘flotus’.
Similarly, all three accounts are listed as having been created in January 2025, while Trump and Vance’s personal accounts date back to 2013 and 2021 respectively.
The same goes for the Facebook accounts associated with Donald Trump, JD Vance and Melania Trump.
In a post on Threads, Meta’s communications director Andy Stone explained, “The Facebook.com/POTUS and Facebook.com/WhiteHouse accounts are controlled by the White House and change as the occupant of the White House changes.”
Users also reported that they appeared to have been blocked by Instagram from certain search terms related to left-wing politics after the inauguration.

However, Meta Communications Director Andy Stone says these accounts are the official President, Vice President and First Lady accounts that are controlled by the White House and handed over to the new incumbent President after an election.


When Trump became president, he was given the official Potus (President of the United States) Instagram account (left), which is different from his personal account (right)


If you look at JD Vance’s accounts, there is a clear difference between his personal account (right) and the account people complained about following (left)
Searches for terms such as “#voteblue,” “#obama,” “#biden” and “#democrats” returned no results Monday and Tuesday.
Meanwhile, some users pointed out that right-associated terms such as “#republican” were still showing search results.
Although the terms are once again searchable, this apparent restriction led to angry accusations of political bias.
On I’m curious to see how the new content policy goes!’.
Meta claims that this issue was not the product of political bias, but rather an unspecified technical problem.
Mr Stone said in a post on Threads: ‘There is an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram – not just the hashtags on the left. We are working quickly to resolve this.”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that both ‘#conservative’ and ‘#republicans’ were blocked – although they offered no explanation as to why.
Meta told the Mail that it was investigating how the hashtag error or bug could have arisen in the first place.

A large number of Instagram users also complained that search terms related to left-wing political topics were being blocked

Meta says this is due to an unspecified technical issue that has affected both left-wing and right-wing hashtags

The accusations of political bias come at a sensitive time for Meta, as CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg publicly focuses on supporting Trump. Mr Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund and was a guest at the new president’s inauguration earlier this week (pictured)
Earlier this month, Instagram made a similar mistake when the hashtag for Meghan Markle’s new Netflix show was accidentally blocked.
The social media site refused to show search results for ‘#WithLoveMeghan’ and warned it could be linked to child sexual abuse.
Instead of photos and videos related to the upcoming show, people received a message linking them to resources about helping victims of abuse.
“We believe your search may be related to child sexual abuse,” the message read.
A Meta spokesperson said the “search term was accidentally narrowed and has now been resolved.”
These accusations of bias come at a particularly sensitive time for Meta, as founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a marked shift toward support for Trump’s policies.
Although Zuckerberg previously championed a system of human and automated fact-checkers, he recently announced that this would be replaced by an X-style community notes system.
The use of fact-checkers had been heavily criticized by Trump and his allies over the controversial claim that right-wing content was disproportionately targeted.

In response to pressure from Trump and his allies, Zuckerberg has announced the end of fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram. In a video, Zuckerberg repeated Trump’s claim that the fact-checkers had been “too politically biased.”
In a video, Zuckerberg said: “Governments and traditional media have increasingly imposed censorship.
‘The recent elections also feel like a cultural turning point to once again prioritize expression. “So we’re going back to our roots and focusing on reducing errors, simplifying our policies and restoring free speech on our platforms.”
Mr. Zuckerberg added that the fact-checkers on his platform were “too politically biased.”
Similarly, Meta updated its harmful content policy on topics such as gender and immigration, and specifically allowed posts that call homosexuality a mental illness.
Mr Zuckerberg also donated $1 million (£808,000) to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund and was a featured guest at the new president’s inauguration earlier this week.