WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — While President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election, one thing he can't block is the handover of the official @POTUS Twitter account.
Twitter confirmed that control over the official account for the President of the United States will go to the Biden administration on Inauguration Day.
The @POTUS account is different from @realDonaldTrump, Trump's personal account where he does the vast majority of his tweeting.
"Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021. As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration," Twitter said in a statement.
A handful of other official accounts that will be handed over include @WhiteHouse, @VP, @FLOTUS. The company confirmed to POLITICO the handover doesn't require the Trump team to share any information with the Biden team.
In 2017, when the official accounts were handed over from President Obama to President Trump the Twitter feeds were wiped clean and an archive of Obama's tweets was set up on the @POTUS44 account. A similar Tweet archive was established for Obama's press secretary and the official White house photographer.
Last week, Twitter confirmed to Reuters that Trump will be subject to the same rules as any other user once President-elect Biden takes office. Twitter places “public interest” notices on some rule-breaking tweets from “world leaders” that would otherwise be removed, but the exception doesn't apply to former office holders, Reuters reported.
President Trump has been attempting to subvert the presidential election results in key states, but so far his campaign has had little success in court.
