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Joe Biden, right, and Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Del., Jan. 14.
Photographer: Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
Joe Biden’s transition team flipped the switch on a new Twitter account for the president-elect Thursday night, while confronting the social media company over its decision to deny the incoming administration millions of existing subscribers to the White House.
Biden’s transition opened up @PresElectBiden in order to begin creating a sequel for one of the official accounts the new president will inherit at noon on January 20: @POTUS. In a change in practice from 2017, when President Donald Trump took office, Twitter Inc. plans to reset the official @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts to zero followers for Biden.
Both accounts currently have massive audiences – almost 60 million subscribers combined, although there is some overlap. Trump got a head start in 2017 when he inherited an estimated 12 million @POTUS followers from President Barack Obama’s tenure, along with millions of followers from other official accounts. Although Trump has used his personal account, @realDonaldTrump, as his main social media spokesperson throughout his presidency, Biden aides believe it is unfair that Twitter does not forward followers with official accounts .
“They prefer the early days of President Trump’s administration to ours,” Rob Flaherty, digital director of transition who will be director of digital strategy at the Biden White House, said of Twitter. “If we don’t end the day with the 12 million subscribers Donald Trump inherited from Barack Obama, then they gave us less than they gave Donald Trump, and that’s a failure.
Read more: Trump plans to live in Mar-a-Lago, employ current aides
Biden’s personal account @JoeBiden has around 24 million subscribers – tens of millions less than @realDonaldTrump, before Twitter permanently suspended the account last week after the president pushed supporters who broke in in the US Capitol.
Twitter sees the new @PresElectBiden as an accommodation for the new president who helps resolve the dispute over official accounts. Fans of the temporary grip will be transferred to @POTUS on the day of the inauguration. A Twitter spokesperson who asked not to be named confirmed the plans, saying the company’s goal was to support the archiving and transition of accounts between jurisdictions.
Biden’s existing @ Transition46 account will take control of @WhiteHouse at noon on January 20. Biden’s team is also launching @FLOTUSBiden for incoming First Lady Jill Biden, @SecondGentleman for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff and @PressSecPsaki for Jen Psaki, the new White House press secretary. . Harris’ official Senate account @SenKamalaHarris will take control of @VP on inauguration day.
Official White House and Presidential tweets must be archived at the end of each administration to comply with Presidential Archives Law. Twitter said it was technically too difficult to copy or transfer the millions of subscribers from Trump’s White House accounts to official Biden accounts. But two transition officials have privately voiced their skepticism, pointing to other social media platforms’ handling of the change in administration.
Earlier: Twitter’s Dorsey said Trump’s ban was a ‘right move’
Both Facebook Inc. and its Instagram affiliate will duplicate the millions of followers who currently follow Trump White House accounts to follow new Biden White House accounts. Subscribers of Biden’s current account will be duplicated to follow the POTUS account while the name of the Trump POTUS account will be changed and saved as an archive
“We are following the same procedures we used in the handover between the Obama administration and Trump when President-elect Biden is sworn in next week,” Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said.
Copying White House followers on Facebook and Instagram means Biden’s administration will begin with a large built-in audience for the president-elect that will include many people who are not Biden supporters – people his team is keen on. achieve. The incoming administration will also inherit followers of Trump’s official White House YouTube channel.
“It’s helpful to be able to communicate with an audience that doesn’t agree with us,” Flaherty said.
(Updates with Facebook procedures, quote from company representative, from ninth paragraph.)
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