A spokesperson of Twitter said that the company is preparing for supporting the transition of the institutional accounts of the White House on January 20, 2021. Adding to the statement, they said that the process is done exactly as it was done in 2017 while transferring the account of the former President Barack Obama to President Donald Trump. Their team is working closely with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Along with the @POTUS account, other handles linked to the White House like @VP, @whitehouse, and @FLOTUS are also being worked on.
Twitter said that the current tweets on the @POTUS account will be archived under the name of President Donald Trump and the account will be instantly reset to zero tweets as it was done in 2017. Information will not be shared during the handover among the teams of Trump and Biden.
The transition of these accounts will take place even if Trump refuses to concede. As of now, Trump hasn’t accepted his defeat since the victory of Joe Biden on November 7, 2020.
Since 2017, Trump has been mainly using his personal account that goes by the handle @realDonaldTrump for tweeting. According to the policies, he will be able to continue using his account after the Inauguration Day as a private citizen of the US. But, this account will be heavily regulated as per the policies of Twitter. If it fails to meet the rules, the account can even be suspended or removed.
In the past few weeks, Twitter has frequently used tags like “disputed” and “misleading” on Trump’s tweets regarding the election.
