Meta, the company which owns social media networks Facebook and Instagram, has denied forcing users to follow official accounts belonging to senior figures in the new Trump administration.

Some users of the platforms had complained following Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday that they had “automatically” been made to follow the new president, as well as Vice-President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone explained that the accounts were managed by the White House, which had updated them to reflect the new position holders.

“This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition,” he wrote in a statement.

The accounts carry the handles Potus – which stands for “president of the United States” – as well as VicePresident and Flotus, an acronym for the first lady.

Archived versions of the pages show the Potus and Flotus accounts previously carried the name and official portrait of Joe Biden and Jill Biden, respectively.

Mr Stone added that it “may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands”.

Trump became US president for the second time on Monday and quickly set about issuing a range of executive orders and directives asserting his political agenda – ranging from withdrawing from the World Health Organisation to declaring a national emergency at the border with Mexico.

His inauguration was attended by some of the most influential tech billionaires, including Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and X chief Elon Musk, who also has an advisory role in the new administration.

Trump has previously been heavily critical of Meta, which banned him in 2021 for what it described as his “praise for people engaged in violence” during the 6 January riots at the US Capitol.

The president and his allies also accused the firm of co-operating with the Biden administration to supress reports concerning allegations about Biden’s son, Hunter, and some content surrounding the Covid pandemic. Mr Zuckerberg said he regretted the decision.

In August, Trump wrote in a book that Mr Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he attempted to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.

Since Trump’s election win in early November, though, Mr Zuckerberg appears to have curried favour with him, dining with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence at the end of the month and donating $1m (£786,000) towards his inauguration a few weeks later.

Meta also said earlier this month that it would end third-party fact-checking in favour of an approach similar to X’s community notes, in an apparent attempt to address some of Trump’s prior criticisms.

The company said this marked a return to its “fundamental commitment to free expression”.

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