After the inauguration
Purchased followers? Trump opponents suddenly follow his Instagram account
Donald Trump and JD Vance created the official Instagram accounts of the US President and Vice President. Suddenly they also have opponents as followers.
Following the inauguration of Donald Trump and JD Vance, the two have now taken over the official Instagram accounts of the US President and Vice President. About 24 hours later it becomes clear: things are not going well when it comes to growing the number of followers.
On his Instagram account “potus”, which was created in January of this year, Trump has already collected 19.1 million followers. Vance’s brand new “vp” account is currently followed by 16.7 million people.
What is surprising is that the number of followers appears to be developing very unnaturally. Last night, Vance already had over 9 million followers, while Trump was still under 3 million. And: Anyone new to the two of them apparently doesn’t always do so voluntarily.
Did Donald Trump and JD Vance buy followers?
In the comment columns under posts by Trump and Vance, users are angry. They did not follow the accounts independently. “Stop forcing follows, that’s creepy,” writes one user under a post from Vance. “I never followed you! How did that happen?!?” someone commented on one of Trump’s posts.
Trump fans are flocking to Washington – and showing their joy with outfits
It’s hard to miss who this man supports: he clearly carries the likenesses of the 45th and 47th Presidents of the USA in front of him
© Roman Balandin/TASS / Action Press
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A comparison with the Biden government’s accounts also shows that this could all really be fraud: Kamala Harris’ “vp” account, now under the name “vp46archive”, had 16.9 million followers in four years collect, Biden’s “potus”, now “potus46archive”, had 18.7 million followers.
Instagram operator Meta defends itself against the claims. A company spokesman said the changes were part of standard operating procedure when there is a change of government. Anyone who previously followed Joe Biden or Kamala Harris is now also a follower of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
When it comes to the misuse of social media for Trump’s purposes, there is almost a pattern emerging: the day after his inauguration, Instagram apparently suppressed certain political search hits. Users who searched for the hashtags #Democrat, #Democrats, #Biden or #DNC (short for the “Democratic National Committee”) were shown a notice that the search results were hidden. The parent company Meta spoke of a “mistake”.
Correction note: The previous version of the article did not contain the statement from Instagram parent company Meta. We added this.
lpb
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
