Twitter To Hand @POTUS Account To Biden On Inauguration Day

The presidential @POTUS account would be under the control of Joe Biden when he is sworn in on inauguration day. This is according to Twitter in a confirmation on Saturday.

This is despite the refusal of President Donald Trump to concede to his election loss.

“Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021,” the social network said in a statement to AFP.

“As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration,” the statement said.

As part of the handover, all existing tweets on @POTUS, as well as @FLOTUS (the First Lady), @VP (vice president), and other official accounts would be archived.

Afterward, the accounts will then be reset to zero tweets and transferred to the incoming Biden White House that day.

Trump used Twitter to help build his political brand and, later, wield the power of the presidency — though he mainly uses his account, @realDonaldTrump, whose 88 million followers dwarf @POTUS’s 32 million.

The @POTUS account is largely used to retweet Trump’s personal account, as well as the White House accounts.

Trump’s fondness of announcing new policies on the platform unexpectedly has led to long-standing complaints of governing by tweet.

Also, Twitter has long come under pressure to prevent the president’s use of the site to disseminate misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Since the election, the company has hit warning labels on many Trump tweets as he continues to insist — despite all evidence to the contrary — that he won the vote, and that Biden’s victory is due to massive fraud.

On the other hand, Biden is a far more calm Twitter user. He has sent fewer than 7,000 tweets to his 19 million followers when compared to Trump’s 58,000.