Donald Trump was inaugurated as US President this week. AFP
Donald Trump was inaugurated as US President this week. AFP

Why some Meta users are auto-following Donald Trump and JD Vance



Some Meta users have found themselves automatically following US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s accounts on social media after the inauguration this week, despite not previously following them or liking their page.

The probable explanation is that this happened because those users had previously followed the official US government accounts, which change owners.

“A reminder: the Facebook.com/potus and Facebook.com/White… accounts are managed by the White House. They change when the occupant of the White House changes," Andy Stone, Meta's communication director, further clarified on Threads.

This also applies to the accounts for the US Vice President and US First Lady. After the new president is sworn in, the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the previous administration are archived and the posts, as well as followers, are preserved. These followers are then transferred to the new official accounts.

Former President Joe Biden’s now archived Potus account had 11 million followers on Facebook and 18.3 million followers on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Meta has been making changes to its platforms. Earlier this month, it announced it would end its third-party fact-checking programme and use Community Notes instead.

The company says the move is aimed at promoting free expression and reducing accusations of bias in content moderation.

"The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US," said Mark Zuckerberg. The Meta founder and chief executive was also among tech billionaires in attendance at Trump's inauguration, along with Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google's parent company Alphabet, and Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok.

Notably, his announcement follows years of criticism directed at Meta for its failure to effectively address hate speech, disinformation and other problematic content on Facebook and Instagram.

Zuckerberg also said the social media company would soon be increasing the amount of political content on its platforms.

“We're bringing back civic content,” he said in a video. “For a while, the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts, but it feels like we're in a new era now and we're starting to get feedback that people want to see this content again.”

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Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
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  • Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
  • Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
 
 
Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT

Started: July 2016

Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori

Based: Bangalore, India

Sector: Health & wellness

Size: 500 employees

Investment: $250 million

Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)

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THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ

Price, base: Dh1,731,672

Engine: 6.5-litre V12

Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic

Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm

Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm

Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km

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Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4

Company profile

Name: Oulo.com

Founder: Kamal Nazha

Based: Dubai

Founded: 2020

Number of employees: 5

Sector: Technology

Funding: $450,000

'Young girls thinking of big ideas'

Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.

“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”

In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.

“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”

Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.

“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”

rpennington@thenational.ae

Updated: January 22, 2025, 8:03 AM