Gracie Abrams and Demi Lovato are calling out Instagram parent company Meta for seemingly hindering their efforts to unfollow President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the app after Inauguration Day.
Sharing a close-up selfie on her Story Tuesday (Jan. 21) — one day after the politicians were sworn into office — the “That’s So True” singer wrote that she “had to unfollow @vp and @potus three (3) separate times today because @meta kept automatically refollowing the accounts.”
“How curious!” she continued. “Had to block them in order to make sure I am nowhere near that. Sharing in case this is happening to your account as well.”
The Camp Rock alum also spoke out Tuesday. Posting a screenshot of Vance’s profile onto her own Story, Lovato wrote, “I have unfollowed this guy twice today.”
“Shady f–king business meta,” they added.
In a statement posted by Meta’s Andy Stone on Threads Wednesday and shared with Billboard, the company denied that anyone was “made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the President, Vice President or First Lady.”
“Those accounts are managed by the White House so with a new administration, the content on those Pages changes,” the communications director explained. “This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”
Trump and Vance’s administration assumed control over Instagram’s @potus and @vp handles following their swearing-in ceremony Monday (Jan. 20), which marked the start of the twice-impeached billionaire’s second White House term. For the past four years, the accounts were run by the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, which Abrams and Lovato both openly supported.
The two singers had also endorsed Harris‘ 2024 presidential bid, with the former Eras Tour opener performing at one of the former prosecutor’s October rallies in Madison, Wis. After Harris lost the election to Trump on Nov. 5, Lovato shared a message of hope on X, writing, “This was OUR election and WE WON TOGETHER. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but today we will celebrate each other.”
Nearly two months later, Trump is about 48 hours into his second presidency – and he’s hit the ground running. Following a weekend of inauguration festivities – featuring technical-difficulty-ridden performances from Carrie Underwood and Billy Ray Cyrus – the politician has already signed multiple executive actions targeting immigration, delaying the national TikTok ban and pardoning people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. He’s also reversed dozens of Biden-era orders protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Trump – who was previously banned from Meta’s platforms for two years following the Jan. 6 insurrection – and his team have also been putting his reclaimed @potus account to use. He’s posted on Instagram eight times in the past two days and on Tuesday shared a video of himself signing orders in the Oval Office captioned, “Who’s ready for Day Two? The momentum is unstoppable!”
