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Meta Denies Forcing Users to Follow President Trump’s Accounts on Facebook and Instagram
In a statement released earlier today, Meta has denied claims that the company forced its users to follow President Trump’s official accounts on both Facebook and Instagram. The claim came after numerous reports emerged of users’ accounts automatically following the former president’s profiles without their consent.
According to Meta’s statement, the reported changes were simply standard practices tied to the transition of the presidential accounts from the previous administration to the new one. A spokesperson for the company confirmed that there was no coercion or manipulation of user data to force followership.
“We did not make people’s accounts follow any account,” said Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson. “This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition.”
The controversy arose after some users reported their accounts automatically following President Trump’s profiles without their consent. Many claimed that they had never intentionally opted to follow his pages and were unable to unfollow them as well.
In related news, it has been announced that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended President Trump’s inauguration on Monday, along with other tech leaders including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. The timing of this development has raised concerns among some Facebook and Instagram users.
In response to the backlash, Meta will begin phasing in more recommendations for political content on its platforms, reversing a decision made earlier in 2021 when Zuckerberg said he received feedback that people “don’t want politics and fighting to take over their experience.”
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com
