Instagram and Facebook users around the world, including Australia, have automatically started following President Donald J Trump and JD Vance overnight—and you could be among them without even realising it. Furthermore, reports have also surfaced of topics relating to women’s issues being censored online.
Following the inauguration of Trump, it appears the social media accounts of POTUS and the Vice President have been wiped and replaced. So, where you once followed Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, you now follow Trump and Vance. The same goes for the account of the first lady, which now belong to Melania.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone explained the change via Threads, revealing POTUS and White House accounts are managed by the White House and “change when the occupant of the White House changes.”
Some users have reported unfollowing the accounts only to have them automatically revert back.
In far more disturbing news, it appears topic relating to female health and reproduction, like abortion, are now being censored in the U.S.
Gianna Jarrah, a biomedical engineer specialising in female reproductive health, who uses her platform to help educate those with female reproductive organs, expressed her concern over potential censorship online.
“My entire platform is built off of educating women or anyone with female reproductive organs on their V[aginal] health and their reproductive health, “ she says, now substituting the word vagina for V, so not to break the ‘community guidelines’.
“I’ve used the word ‘V’ in full multiple times in my time on TikTok and I’ve never once had any issues with the word ‘V’.”
Followers immediately flooded the comments confirming they were experiencing the same issue or noting it is isolated to the States.
“If i search the whole word it does not, but v health yes, it does,” one commented before another added, “That’s insane. The US is so dystopian! In Australia our searches are fine. Praying for yall 😭”
Users reported several other hashtags temporarily blocked and labelled as “sensitive content” including #Democrat, #democrats and #republicans but the term #republican was viewable. Further reports of the terms #constitution, #johnoliver and #queer being blocked also surfaced.
Many of these hashtags have now been restored, Meta is yet to explain what caused the issue.