In the days since Donald Trump assumed office, many people online have begun expressing alarm to find they were unwittingly following Trump on Instagram and Facebook.

Some Meta users said that they believed they were forced to follow Donald Trump and JD Vance’s pages, and that Instagram was blocking searches for the #democrat hashtag.

Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as president on Monday, some Instagram and Facebook users started noticing that their accounts were suddenly following Pages associated with the new president, first lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

“I, like others, repeatedly unfollowed Trump and Vance on Monday, only to discover that I was following them again,” said Facebook user Anna Springer on Threads, which is also owned by Meta. “Not sure if it was just a glitch or something intentional, but it definitely happened.”

Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire for allegedly making users auto-follow the new White House occupants — now Meta has responded to the claims

It said follow and unfollow requests may take time as the accounts switch hands to the new Trump administration.

Meta said Facebook and Instagram users were not forced to follow Trump but that unfollowing the new White House accounts 'might take some time.'

Meta admits some people can’t unfollow Donald Trump on Instagram - Users including Gracie Abrams have said they never asked to follow presidential account – and are unable to stop