Joe Biden, President-elect’s transition team called out the decision of Twitter to forbid millions of followers for White House Twitter accounts who will automatically be retained if the accounts are controlled by the new administration.
After Donald Trump became President in 2017 and took over his office, his administration received millions of followers for every account received from the administration of Obama.
This was the first-ever transfer of White House Twitter accounts in the history of the US. During that period, the accounts of @POTUS and @WhiteHouse had over 13 million followers each.
White House Twitter Accounts Called Out By Biden’s Team
Now, after 4 years, the two White House Twitter accounts have a total of almost 60 million followers. Trump has a reputation for being a prolific tweeter and has 88.5 million followers on his personal account.
On Tuesday, Rob Flaherty, the official of the transition of Biden, tweeted that in 2016, Trump’s admin inherited the entirety of Obama’s followers on Twitter after the requests made by Team 44.
Flaherty has further added that Twitter made this decision in 2020 and informed them that from now onwards Biden’s administration has to begin with zero followers for their White House Twitter accounts.
He also clarified that this decision was forwarded to them by Nick Pacilio, a spokesperson of Twitter, and mentioned as unequivocal.
Pacilio had also said that the numerous White House Twitter accounts will no longer automatically hold onto the existing followers.
From now, Twitter will inform the followers regarding a change in hand and give them a choice to continue following the account or discontinue it with proper information. The new account is named @WhiteHouse while the previous one is archived under the name of @WhiteHouse45.
