Have you ever logged into Facebook and noticed something strange? Suddenly, you’re following President Donald Trump, or even the White House, without ever choosing to do so. Well, it seems you’re not alone! A number of Facebook users are reporting that they’ve mysteriously started following these pages right after the 47th president’s inauguration.
Here’s the scoop: One Reddit user shared that their feed was suddenly flooded with official posts from Trump and the White House, even though they’d never followed those pages. Another Facebook user echoed this concern, noticing that they were now following Trump and his wife, despite never having visited their pages. “Everyone check your page,” they urged, “I never even looked at their pages!”
But wait—there’s more to this story! Some users believe that this “auto-following” issue might be linked to the POTUS (President of the United States) account, which automatically switches to the new president after inauguration. This means that if you were following the POTUS account under Biden, it’s now switched over to Trump. The same thing happened for the vice president and first lady’s accounts.
This mysterious auto-following problem has some social media users scratching their heads, especially as Meta—Facebook’s parent company—recently faced criticism over some strange Instagram issues. Users noticed that when searching for political terms, particularly related to the Democrats, they were getting a message saying, “results hidden.” Ironically, similar searches for “Republicans” showed millions of posts, causing some to point fingers at Meta for potential political bias.
Meta has tried to clarify that this was a technical glitch affecting a variety of hashtags, not just political ones. However, social media expert Matt Navarra shared that even minor errors like this can quickly turn into big accusations of partisanship in today’s polarized world. If the issue isn’t fixed soon, it could fuel conspiracy theories and hurt Meta’s reputation.
Meta has apologized and reassured users that they’re actively working on the issue. They’ve also reminded users that the POTUS and White House accounts are managed by the White House itself and change when a new president is in office.
As if that wasn’t enough drama, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, made headlines for attending Trump’s second inauguration. This move, along with other recent actions, has led some to believe that Zuckerberg is trying to get on Trump’s good side. Other tech giants like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have also been making their own efforts to cozy up to Trump.
In any case, Meta has a lot of explaining to do, and users are definitely watching closely. Stay tuned for updates, as this auto-following mystery and the Instagram glitch saga continue to unfold.
In the meantime, check your Facebook feed—who knows what you might suddenly be following next!
