Instagram Users Struggle to Unfollow Trump and Vance

Some Instagram users, including singers like Demi Lovato and Gracie Abrams, are having trouble unfollowing the accounts of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and First Lady Melania Trump. Abrams shared on her Instagram story that she had to unfollow the @vp and @potus accounts three times because Meta kept refollowing them automatically. She even had to block them to ensure she wasn't connected to those accounts anymore. Lovato also mentioned unfollowing Trump's account multiple times. Many social media users are warning others to unfollow these accounts if they don't support the Trump administration. There have also been concerns about the hashtag #Democrat being blocked on Instagram. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone clarified that the company is working on resolving an issue with the hashtag search function, which affects different hashtags, not just those on the left. Meta denies forcing users to follow Trump and Vance's accounts. The company explained that the accounts for the president, vice president, and first lady change with each new administration, and it follows the same procedure as during the last presidential transition. It might take some time for follow and unfollow requests to process as these accounts change hands. This incident adds to the recent criticism of Meta, which has been accused of taking a right-wing policy turn. Before Trump's inauguration, Meta replaced its top policy executive with a Republican and appointed Trump ally Dana White to its board. The company also ended its third-party fact-checking programs and changed its hateful conduct policies to allow new types of content. Meta recently stopped its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. On the same day, CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast, claiming that he had been working on these company shifts for a while and that excessive content moderation and fact-checking had destroyed trust on the platform. Zuckerberg was one of several tech billionaires who attended Trump's inauguration.