Trump is Out and it’s Biden’s Turn to Take Control
Twitter has given Joe Biden access to the official presidential account as his first full day in office commences.
The new president’s team is now able to Tweet from the numerous institutional accounts – the official Twitter for the US government, @POTUS, as well as @WhiteHouse, @VP, @FLOTUS and @PressSec.
The time to move forward is now. pic.twitter.com/IrUUu0bxGO
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 20, 2021
Biden’s new presidential account currently has 5.2 million followers and follows just 13 people, the one celebrity being Chrissy Teigen, who directly requested a follow in a Tweet.
hello @joebiden I have been blocked by the president for four years can I get a follow plz
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) January 20, 2021
For the past four years, the institutional accounts have been in the hands of Trump’s administration. Each Tweet posted by Trump’s team will now be relocated to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). All of this data will be immortalised in renamed accounts, which will be in the safe hands of NARA, yet permanently accessible to the public.
The new accounts are, actually, renamed versions of existing accounts. For example, the official @POTUS account is now a transformed version of @PresElectBiden and the @WhiteHouse account is the one that was previously run by the transition team.
There has been, however, a transferal of Tweets and followers across the accounts, meaning the 33 million followers of Trump’s version of @POTUS disappeared following Biden’s takeover.
Twitter states that existing followers of these institutional accounts, or “relevant Biden or Harris Twitter accounts,” will be notified of the transition and asked whether they wish to follow the accounts representing the new administration.
If you don’t already, go and follow @POTUS for regular updates from the new US president and his team.
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.
