President Biden goes to wish some Twitter followers. Twitter plans to wipe out all followers from the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts as soon as Biden is sworn in on January twentieth, relatively than transferring the accounts’ current followers over to the brand new administration, according to Rob Flaherty, Biden’s digital director. The accounts for @FLOTUS and @PressSec are amongst round a dozen others which might be set to be transferred to the brand new administration beneath the identical insurance policies, according to The Wall Street Journal.
This can be a reversal from what Twitter did in 2016 when the Trump administration took over accounts from the Obama administration. Again then, Twitter primarily duplicated the present accounts, creating an archive of Obama-era tweets and followers and constructing a brand new set of accounts for the incoming administration that retained all of these followers with none of the tweets.
Twitter hasn’t mentioned why it’s altering the coverage this time. Twitter advised The Verge it’s “in ongoing discussions with the Biden transition group on a variety of facets associated to White Home account transfers.” Biden’s group appears to be sad about this alteration in coverage, given the numerous digital benefit they’ll be dropping. Flaherty mentioned the transition group “pushed again and we have been advised this was unequivocal.”
Whereas the president has loads of pulpits to talk from, there’s no denying that Twitter is a serious communications device for the president after these final 4 years. These accounts have vital followings to rebuild, too: @POTUS has 33 million followers, @WhiteHouse has 26 million, @FLOTUS has 16 million, and @PressSec has 6 million.
Donald Trump’s @POTUS account might be renamed @POTUS45 and “frozen as-is,” the Journal reported. He’ll nonetheless be in command of @realDonaldTrump, albeit with fewer protections than earlier than.
