Twitter will clear POTUS account followers: Biden campaign

President-elect Joe Biden‘s campaign digital director on Tuesday said that the accounts which the official POTUS and White House Twitter accounts follow will all be unfollowed by Twitter when Biden becomes president in January, Twitter reportedly told Biden’s team, The Hill reports.

Retweeting the Wall Street Journal’s Emily Glazer, who herself shared an article she wrote about how President Donald Trump will be held to different Twitter rules once he’s no longer in office, Rob Flaherty, Biden’s Digital Director, on Tuesday morning made the statement about the POTUS and White House accounts.

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“In 2016, the Trump admin absorbed all of President Obama’s Twitter followers on @POTUS and @WhiteHouse — at Team 44’s urging,” Flaherty tweeted, referencing Barack Obama’s role as the 44th president. “In 2020, Twitter has informed us that as of right now the Biden administration will have to start from zero.”

Twitter spokesperson Nicholas Pacilio would not confirm Flaherty’s statement and stated that the social media platform is still talking with the Biden transition team about the transfer of the accounts.

“Twitter has been in ongoing discussions with the Biden transition team on a number of aspects related to White House account transfers,” Pacilio said in a statement.

In response to Pacilio, Flaherty reaffirmed his earlier statement, saying, “Hey @NickPacilio — happy to share the email thread where we pushed back and we were told this was unequivocal.”

Following this fiery retort, Pacilio replied, saying, “Hey Rob, no need i’m familiar with it!”

According to the Biden transition team, per The Hill, the social media platform will send out a one-time notification suggesting users who follow Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Twitter follow the “transition46” account which will be rebranded as the White House account. However, the POTUS, FLOTUS, and “PressSec” accounts will start with following zero accounts.

Both accounts together have 59.2 million followers, with the POTUS account having 33.2 million and the White House account having 26 million. Nonetheless, their total doesn’t even come close to the 88.5 million who follow President Trump’s personal account.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.