Their explanation is that the executive branch’s accounts are rolled over when a new administration comes into power, so if you were following Biden and Harris, well, now that’s Trump and Vance.
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A spokesperson for Meta also said that “it may take some time” for all of the follow/unfollow requests to go through, explaining why some people are reporting that they had to unfollow the accounts multiple times before it stuck or that the platform won’t “let” them unfollow.
Wait, I need more. What’s the background here?
There’s also confusion because Harris and Biden’s posts have been archived, and maybe the current POTUS accounts are new, but the handles were switched, or…honestly, it’s pretty confusing, and while Meta insists that this is just standard operating procedure and the same thing happened in 2021 and 2017, there are users who claim they never followed any political accounts and are still experiencing the issue. So, to quote Oprah, what is the truth?
Conspiracy-heads may point to Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s recent alignment with the right wing and the Trump administration; he not only attended the inauguration but recently announced that Facebook would stop fact-checking and dismantle its diversity programs.
What does the internet think?
They’re pretty annoyed! While social media will always have glitches, you’d think that the last two elections would have given the company ample time to prepare for these handovers and ensure that no extra accounts are automatically added and that unfollowing is as easy as tapping a screen.
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