Joe Biden’s POTUS Account Restarted by Twitter With Zero Followers: Report
Twitter has removed all followers from @POTUS and @WhiteHouse account rather than transferring the accounts existing followers over to the new administration as part of the change in policy.
San Francisco, Jan 21: Twitter has removed all followers from @POTUS and @WhiteHouse account rather than transferring the accounts existing followers over to the new administration as part of the change in policy. Trump administration Twitter accounts are now publicly archived and include: @POTUS45, @WhiteHouse45, @VP45, @PressSec45, @FLOTUS45 and @SecondLady45. Twitter Juggles US Presidential Accounts, Resets @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, @FLOTUS and @VP.
Accounts for the White House, President, Vice President, First Lady and White House Press Secretary have now inherited their new institutional usernames, like @Transition46 has become @WhiteHouse and @PresElectBiden has become @POTUS. @SenKamalaHarris has become @VP and @FLOTUSBiden has become @FLOTUS, reports The Verge.
This is a reversal from what the micro-blogging platform did in 2017 when the Donald Trump administration took over accounts from the Barack Obama administration. Twitter then duplicated the existing accounts, creating an archive of Obama-era tweets and followers. According to the company, it was "in ongoing discussions with the Biden transition team on a number of aspects related to White House account transfers."
"Biden's team seems to be unhappy about this change in policy, given the significant digital advantage they'll be losing," the report said on Wednesday.
@POTUS had 33 million followers, @WhiteHouse had 26 million, @FLOTUS had 16 million, and @PressSec had 6 million as of December. Donald Trump's @POTUS account will be renamed @POTUS45 and "frozen as-is". @realDonaldTrump, the Twitter feed which launched a real estate businessman into America's most powerful political office, went silent on January 8 and has lost significant followers since the ban.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 21, 2021 10:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).