Biden won't inherit Trump's millions of Twitter followers, will have to start from zero

The US President-elect Joe Biden who is all set to be sworn-in in less than 30 days, will not be inheriting outgoing President Donald Trump’s 33.2 million followership on Twitter's @POTUS account as well as the followers on White House accounts. While the former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2017 had reportedly insisted the microblogging platform transfer not only the presidential and White House accounts to the next administration but also the followers as Obama left the presidency to the Republican leader.

However, now incoming President Biden’s digital director Rob Flaherty on December 22 said that Twitter has directed the 46th administration in the White House will have to to “start from zero” followership even as the accounts will be handed over on the inauguration day, that is, January 20, 2021.

Biden’s team has reportedly told Business Insider that even the @FLOTUS and @PressSec will begin with zero followers along with @WhiteHouse and @POTUS. This came after Trump elevated the use of the microblogging platform for not only making significant announcements including peace deals but also abruptly firing employees from the administration. 

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Twitter to give @POTUS account to Biden on Inauguration Day

American microblogging website, Twitter has previously said that the presidential handle on the platform, @POTUS will be automatically transferred to US President-elect Joe Biden the instance he is sworn in on Inauguration Day on January 20, 2021. As per the Twitter statement given to Politico, the website will make the move irrespective of Trump conceding to Biden. Even as several states have declared Biden as the winner, Trump has been on  Twitter spree denying defeat and even posting ‘disputed’ claims about the fraud in counting.

Apart from the @POTUS account, the transition would take place on other US government accounts including @whitehouse, @VP, @FLOTUS,  among others. As per the media report, Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio said in an email that “Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20, 2021”. He also added that the transfer would take place in a similar manner as it did in 2017, which is in coordination with the National Archives and Records Administration.

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