If you have noticed that on social networks like Facebook and Instagram you have suddenly become followers of Donald Trump And JD Vance (the new President and Vice President of the USA) without having chosen it, rest assured: you are not victims of a conspiracy. This phenomenon has a very simple explanation, which is closely linked to the management of the institutional accounts of the President and Vice President of the United States of America. Whenever there is a change of administration, the official accounts associated with the White House, such as @potus (which stands for President Of The United States) for the President e @vp for the Vice President, they are transferred to the new leadership, maintaining followers and archiving previous content. This means that if you previously followed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris through these official accounts, you now find yourself automatically following Trump and Vance. Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, confirmed that this is a standard procedure also adopted in previous changes of administration. If you no longer want to follow these accounts, you can do so manually without any restrictions. The same goes for other social platforms, such as X.
Those who followed Biden’s institutional account now follow Trump: the controversy and the explanation
The confusion arises from the fact that many people are not aware of the distinction between personal accounts and institutional accounts. Trump and Vance’s personal accounts are separate from the official White House accounts, which are managed by the incumbent administration. So, this is not an attempt to force the following of certain politicians, but of a technical process aimed at ensuring the continuity of government communications through official channels.
Some users have reported difficulty unfollowing these accounts, fueling conspiracy theories about alleged manipulation by Meta. Andy Stonespokesperson for Meta, clarified that it may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to be fully processed, especially during the administration transition, when accounts change ownership. The same procedure has been followed in previous transitions, including Barack Obama to Donald Trump in 2016 and Trump to Biden in 2020. Stone said:
People were not forced to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts of the President, Vice President, or First Lady. These accounts are managed by the White Houseso with a new administration, the content of those Pages changes.
Where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ posts end up
For those wondering what happens to the posts of previous administrationsthese are not deleted, but archived at the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), the federal body that deals with the conservation of official documents. This ensures that each administration’s communications remain accessible for the purposes of transparency and historical research. Other official accounts, such as that of the White House press spokesperson, are also transferred to the new administration following, essentially, the same principle.