In the days since Donald Trump assumed office, many people online have begun expressing alarm to find they were unwittingly following Trump on Instagram and Facebook.

Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president on Monday, some Instagram and Facebook users started noticing that their accounts were suddenly following Pages associated with the new president, First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Facebook and Instagram users have accused Meta of artificially boosting Trump's follower count by forcing people to follow him in the wake of Monday's inauguration. The issue was raised after several people discovered that their accounts were following the president despite them having given no indication that this was something they'd like to do.

After President Donald Trump’s swearing in Monday, numerous Facebook and Instagram users discovered — to their horror and dismay — that they were somehow following not only Trump but also Vice President JD Vance,

Some Meta users said that they believed they were forced to follow Donald Trump and JD Vance’s pages, and that Instagram was blocking searches for the #democrat hashtag.

Meta is pushing back on claims from social media users who say they've been forced to follow Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to U.S. President Donald Trump, his wife Melania Trump and Vice-President J.

“I, like others, repeatedly unfollowed Trump and Vance on Monday, only to discover that I was following them again,” said Facebook user Anna Springer on Threads, which is also owned by Meta. “Not sure if it was just a glitch or something intentional, but it definitely happened.”

Handing over control of the official presidential and vice presidential social media accounts has become a standard part of the transition process.

Meta admits some people can’t unfollow Donald Trump on Instagram - Users including Gracie Abrams have said they never asked to follow presidential account – and are unable to stop