Millions of Instagram users may have opted to unfollow the official @Potus Instagram account after President Donald Trump took office again last week.
As of Wednesday, @Potus has 15.8 million followers. During former President Joe Biden’s time in the White House, the account had 18.6 million.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has a policy of not altering the following of White House-managed accounts during such transitions. The drop suggests many users actively chose to unfollow the account.
Why It Matters
Political divisions are reflected not just in traditional media and the physical world, but in social media dynamics as well, as suggested by the notable drop in followers from the @Potus Instagram account after President Trump’s inauguration.
Digital platforms have played a significant role in presidential campaigns and administrations over the past decade, from former President Obama paving the way as the first “social media president,” to President Trump’s famed posting on X and TruthSocial, to former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ meme virality.
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What To Know
Following the transition of the @Potus Instagram account from former President Biden to President Trump, a notable drop in follower count appears to have occurred—to the tune of 2.8 million, as of Thursday.
Rumors circulated that Meta made users follow Trump and JD Vance’s accounts. Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, clarified in a Threads post last week, “People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady. Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes.”
Stone also noted that this process is consistent with practices during the last presidential transition, and that “follow” and “unfollow” requests may take a while to process during the account handover.
Users who followed the previous administration’s accounts, including @WhiteHouse, will continue to follow both the current and the archived accounts following the transition of power, per CNBC reporting.
“The transfer of official White House social media accounts is a digital extension of the peaceful transition of power. Just as outgoing presidents relinquish the briefing room, they hand over the keys to these online communication channels as well,” Andrew Koneschusky, founder and CEO at Beltway Advisors and former press secretary for U.S. Senate leader Chuck Schumer, told Newsweek.
According to Koneschusky, this process was initially implemented during the transition from former President Obama to President Trump and “ensures continuity in how the executive branch communicates with the American people.”
What People Are Saying
Andrew Koneschusky, founder and CEO at Beltway Advisors and former press secretary for US Senate leader Chuck Schumer, told Newsweek: “There’s nothing unethical about transferring accounts from one administration to the next, especially given Meta has applied the process consistently for almost a decade. The confusion around recent transfers highlights a need for greater transparency, not a fundamental flaw in the process.
“Meta could better serve the public by proactively explaining the account transitions or notifying users about the changes. This would also help Meta maintain trust with its users. Meta’s recent changes to its content moderation policies eroded trust with many users. In the absence of transparency, distrustful users may interpret these routine account transfers as political favoritism. Clear communication would help prevent misconceptions.”
Justin Gest, professor and director of the Public Policy program at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told Newsweek: “Starting with foreign disinformation campaigns in 2016, and more recently with the politicization of post-Elon Musk Twitter, I think consumers now recognize that social media is a deeply flawed source of information. Regular users know this intuitively. They are fed a lot of outrage-inducing content with little accountability. They are more aware of the algorithm-built bubbles they live in. And now that the largest sources have closed their fact-checking units, it is officially a free-for-all with not even the imprimatur of truthfulness.”
Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta, wrote in a Threads post: “A reminder: the Facebook.com/POTUS and Facebook.com/WhiteHouse accounts are managed by the White House. They change when the occupant of the White House changes.”
What Happens Next
The ongoing public scrutiny and debate over the follower dynamics of presidential social media accounts are likely to prompt further discussions about transparency and user autonomy on social media platforms.
