Reasons behind why your social media accounts might seem to have followed President Trump or Vice President Vance automatically

WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump was replaced by Vice President JD Vance, some users of Facebook and Instagram were surprised to see themselves automatically following their accounts. This unexpected situation occurred because these users had previously followed official U.S. government accounts.

According to Meta spokesman Andy Stone’s statement in a Threads post, the management of the official POTUS and White House accounts lies with the White House, and these accounts are updated with each change in White House occupancy.

The same goes for accounts for the U.S. vice president and first lady.

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Following the inauguration of a new president, the Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to the previous administration are archived. This preservation includes posts and followers, with the followers subsequently being moved to the new official accounts.

As of Tuesday morning, Joe Biden’s archived POTUS account had 11 million followers on Facebook, as did Trump’s official POTUS account.

To unfollow an account you don’t want to follow, click the ellipsis on the profile page and click “unfollow” or “block.”