USA TODAY International Edition
Biden takes control of Twitter’s @ POTUS
It’s official. Not only has Joe Biden been sworn in as America’s 46th president but his presidency has been confirmed on one of the nation‘ s largest social media networks.
Twitter has transferred the @ POTUS and @ WhiteHouse accounts from former President Donald Trump to Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris took over the @ VP account, first lady Jill Biden the @ FLOTUS account and Doug Emhoff, the nation’s first second gentleman, is now @ SecondGentleman, a newly made account.
“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,” reads the first tweet from Biden since assuming control of the POTUS account. “That’s why today, I am heading to the Oval Office to get right to work delivering bold action and immediate relief for American families.”
Last week, Twitter outlined in a blog post how it would transfer the accounts from the Trump administration while the Biden camp unveiled a new Twitter account, @ PresElectBiden, to help him bring aboard followers before Inauguration Day. His aides complained that Biden is not getting the same deference as Trump, who held onto all of President Barack Obama’s @ POTUS and @ WhiteHouse followers.
“These institutional accounts will
not automatically retain the followers from the prior administration,” Twitter said. “People on Twitter who previously followed institutional White House Twitter accounts, or who currently follow relevant Biden or Harris Twitter accounts, will receive in- app alerts and other prompts that will notify them about the archival process, as well as give them the option to follow the new administration’s Twitter accounts.”
Other transition accounts also were created and the tweets, account history, and followers shifted between the accounts. @ Transition46 became @ WhiteHouse,@ SenKamalaHarris became @ VP, @ FLOTUSBiden became @ FLOTUS and @ PressSecPsaki became @ PressSec.
The official White House account on other platforms including Facebook and Instagram also have transitioned to Biden.
Twitter said during the presidential inauguration the new institutional accounts would be listed in its US Elections Hub and users could “watch the transition of power take place in realtime” as the accounts were transferred.