It’s the worst nightmare for a Twitter user – wake up to find most of your missing followers.
But that’s exactly what will happen Wednesday on the official presidential Twitter accounts. No, no @realDonaldTrump: It’s been banned for life. This is the fate of lesser known accounts like @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, @FLOTUS and @VP. (POTUS is the official acronym for President of the United States; FLOTUS refers to the First Lady).
These institutional accounts do not belong to any particular individual, but are reserved for the official use of government by the current administration. Twitter will transfer them to President-elect Joe Biden once it officially opens Wednesday. Less, that is, most of his followers.
Unlike Twitter’s previous transition, when the official accounts of then-President Barack Obama were transferred to President Donald Trump with his followers intact. This time, those accounts will lose tens of millions of followers at the behest of Twitter. People left by these accounts, in addition to those who follow “relevant Biden and Harris accounts,” such as @KamalaHarris, will receive notifications so they can follow them.
Biden’s checking account – @PresElectBiden – will be transformed into @POTUS once Biden himself becomes POTUS.
Biden’s team doesn’t seem happy about that. The digital director of President-elect Rob Flaherty he tweeted last week that the reset of the follower is “Absolutely, deeply insufficient.”
According to Twitter, the reset allows users to choose whether or not to follow new accounts.
The company says it has not made any decision on whether to take this approach during energy transfers. But spokesman Nick Pacilio said it is the policy of other countries.
As for Trump’s @POTUS account? It will be filed as @ POTUS45, just as the Obama administration account was filed as @ POTUS44.
That’s not the case with @realdonaldtrump, though. Although it has been extensively archived by other platforms and researchers, it has disappeared from Twitter itself. This has only provoked criticism from academics and others who believe it should also be part of the public record, easily searchable and accessible to everyone.
Meanwhile, Facebook is pursuing its previous policy of “doubling” the 11 million followers of the White House’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts in the new administration. Meanwhile, Trump’s POTUS and related accounts will be filed and Biden will get a new one.