President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team unveiled a brand new Twitter account Thursday night.
Biden announced that this account will become @POTUS at 12:01 p.m. Jan. 20. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s @POTUS account will be altered and archived as @POTUS45, according to The Hill.
Folks — This will be the account for my official duties as President. At 12:01 PM on January 20th, it will become @POTUS. Until then, I’ll be using @JoeBiden. And while you’re here, follow @FLOTUSBiden @SenKamalaHarris @SecondGentleman and @Transition46.
— President-elect Biden (@PresElectBiden) January 15, 2021
Twitter plans on resetting both @POTUS and @WhiteHouse official accounts at zero for Biden in a change of policy from 2017 when Trump entered office.
Both of those accounts amount to approximately 59.3 million followers. By creating this new @PresElectBiden account, the Biden transition team will get a head start on building a following before Jan. 20.
Rob Flaherty, the digital director for the Biden transition team, claimed Twitter is treating Biden unfairly. (RELATED: Twitter Follows Trump Suspension With Massive ‘Purge’ Of Conservative Accounts)
“They are advantaging President Trump’s first days of the administration over ours,” Flaherty told Bloomberg. “If we don’t end the day with the 12 million followers that Donald Trump inherited from Barack Obama, then they have given us less than they gave Donald Trump, and that is a failure.”
On inaug day:
-FB is transferring @JoeBiden‘s followers over to POTUS
-Snap is handing us @WhiteHouse
-YT is giving us all of the @WhiteHouse Subs
-Twitter is starting us at zero…but recommended the President of the United States tag other accounts to encourage growth
— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) January 15, 2021
Biden’s personal Twitter account currently has 24 million followers. Trump’s old @realDonaldTrump account had tens of millions more before it was permanently suspended following the Capitol building riots on Jan. 6.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram will each carry over followers in their respective POTUS and White House accounts from Trump to Biden, according to Bloomberg. Both platforms will archive the Trump administration accounts.
Flaherty argued that keeping Trump’s followers would be helpful for Biden’s team to “communicate” with those who do not agree with them. (RELATED: Joe Biden Releases $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Plan, Includes $2,000 Direct Payments)
“There is value in being able to communicate with an audience that doesn’t agree with us,” Flaherty told Bloomberg.
Anyway, the nice thing about Joe Biden is that he truly couldn’t care less about Twitter followers. Or Twitter! But he does care about communicating with everyone in the country, whether they agree with him or not.
— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) January 15, 2021
Official presidential and White House tweets must be archived at the conclusion of each administration per the Presidential Records Act.