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Meta returns to the claim that it boosts Trump on Facebook and Instagram

Meta refutes the claim that it gave President Donald Trump and his administration a boost on its platforms as he returned to the Oval Office on Monday.

On Facebook and Instagram, many users expressed concern about receiving notifications that their accounts had followed the pages of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance after their administration took over from former President Joe Biden. But a Meta spokesperson said the changes were part of standard procedure during administrative turnover.

Others noted on Instagram that the results for the hashtag #democrat were not displayed Monday and early Tuesday, but instead displayed a message saying “We have hidden these results,” adding that “the results for the term you searched for may contain sensitive content.’

The complaints came after CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta shifted their policies and political views outwardly to the right, leading some users to wonder if the changes they observed had anything to do with Meta’s political changes.

However, Meta communications director Andy Stone suggested on social media that what users observed was a combination of Meta’s usual practice during presidential transitions and an unfortunate mistake.

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In response to a post from Distill Social, a nonprofit that complained that Meta was forcing people to follow Trump, Stone wrote that the “POTUS” and “White House” accounts “are controlled by the White House and that they change when the occupant of the White House changes,” meaning that if you followed these accounts during one administration, you would still follow them when the administration changes.

However, as some users have noted, Meta has apparently created new accounts intended for archiving the contents of the previous administration, which seem to automatically follow users as the administration changes. While that process was going through, at least some users were notified that they had started following accounts, including those of Trump, Vance and first lady Melania Trump.

In his posts on Monday, Stone also addressed complaints about the lack of search results for #democrat.

Stone said Meta is “experiencing an issue that affects people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram – not just the hashtags on the left. We are working quickly to resolve this.”

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He did not specify the nature of the problem and Meta declined to add further comment.

The confusion has left some users on edge at a time when the social media giant has seemingly veered rightward.

In a series of policy and practice changes earlier this month, Zuckerberg announced that he would replace his fact-checking system — which has been heavily criticized by Trump and conservatives over the controversial belief that it disproportionately targets right-wing content — with a user-driven system. system similar to X’s Community Notes program.

Zuckerberg said his fact-checkers were “too politically biased,” while Meta also stated that his new community-based system would “require agreement between people with a range of perspectives.” In a Facebook video announcing the change, Zuckerberg noted that the election had a major influence on the company’s decision to end its fact-checking system in favor of “prioritizing speech.”

Also this month, Meta announced internally that it would end many of its programs designed to facilitate diversity in hiring, including disbanding its diversity, equity and inclusion team, and abolishing its “diverse slate approach” .

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And Meta updated its “hateful conduct” policy, which now allows posts calling LGBTQ people mentally ill. Zuckerberg said in his video that the company is “simplifying content policies” around topics like gender and immigration.

“What started as a movement to be more inclusive is increasingly being used to shut down opinions and exclude people with different ideas, and that has gone too far,” he said. “I want to ensure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms.”

Zuckerberg, who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, was also among the big tech billionaires who attended the new president’s inauguration on Monday.

“Optimistic and festive 🇺🇸,” he posted on Facebook, with a photo of him and his wife, Priscilla Chan, dressed up for the event.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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