WASHINGTON, D.C. (KXAN) — Even if Pres. Trump has not conceded by Jan. 20, Twitter will hand over the @POTUS account to president-elect Joe Biden as soon as he’s sworn in at noon.
Twitter confirmed the news to Politico on Friday, saying transfer of the presidential handle will be automatic — as will the accounts for @whitehouse, @VP and @FLOTUS.
“Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021,” Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio said in an email, according to Politico. “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 says all Trump’s tweets will be archived, as have those of Barack Obama (the first president to use the account).
While removing Trump’s access to the @POTUS account — which has over 32 million followers — will likely remove some elements of his reach, it may not be much. Trump has maintained (and often used more frequently) his own personal account, which has 88.9 million followers.
On Friday, Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger certified the battleground state’s results, which reflect Biden as the winner of 2.47 million votes to Trump’s 2.46 million.
As of Saturday morning, Trump continued advancing still unproven claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Election, tweeting: “Big voter fraud information coming out concerning Georgia. Stay tuned!”
Twitter says it will meet with the Biden transition team to explain how the account will operate from now on.