Mark Zuckerberg’s decisions to eliminate independent fact-checking from his social networks and to change moderation rules to allow LGBTI people to be called “mentally ill” have put Meta’s relationship with Trumpism in the spotlight. A hot moment in which millions of users have found that their accounts have begun to automatically follow JD Vance, the new vice president of the United States, without them having clicked the button to do so.
The situation is generating considerable controversy on Instagram, since these forced follows are notified to the rest of the contacts on the platform. When entering Vance’s user profile, Instagram reports how many of its own followers do the same with the new vice president.
Meta assures that everything is due to its policy of transitioning US government accounts. As explained by Andy Stone, one of its global communications managers, has stated that the official accounts of the president, the vice president and the White House, along with their followers, are automatically transferred to the new owners when there is a change of administration.
US law requires the official social media accounts of the president and vice president to be archived when they leave office. The country’s regulations establish that all official records created or received by the president and vice president in the performance of their duties must be preserved as property of the United States government, so they cannot continue to use them personally.
Numerous users who have seen how Meta forced them to follow Vance have reacted by unfollowing and blocking him. However, many have reported that they have had to repeat the process several times after Instagram put them back on Vance’s follower list.
Meta has confirmed that this procedure is not new and that it has been applied in previous presidential transitions, including the transition from Obama to Trump and from Trump to Biden. In Spain, outrage has grown in part thanks to the enormous difference in popularity between the previous owner of Vance’s account, Kamala Harris, and the new vice president, a great unknown outside the borders of the United States.
Vance, in fact, now has two verified profiles on Instagram. One, which has been his personal account until now, in which he has a million followers. The other, where he appears as “Vice President Vance”, in which he totals almost 17 million.
At the moment, Meta has not announced any changes to its government account management policy, although the company recommends that users who do not wish to follow these accounts use the “unfollow” or “block” options available on their platforms. .
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