Biden won’t inherit Trump’s Twitter followers when he takes office; understand the change | World

Biden’s team had questioned the social network’s plan, but the company said its decision was “indisputable.”

The determination is a departure from the country’s last presidential transition in 2016, when Twitter accepted Donald Trump’s request to “inherit” supporters of Barack Obama.

“In 2016, the Trump administration absorbed all of President Obama’s Twitter followers, @POTUS (acronym for President of the United States in English) and @WhiteHouse (White House),” said Rob Flaherty, director of social media, in Twitter from Biden’s team on Monday.

“In 2020, Twitter informed us that now the Biden administration will have to start from scratch.”

The new company policy will also affect the official account of the first lady, @FLOTUS.

Twitter said people who follow existing presidential accounts will be notified that they are being archived and will be asked if they want to follow the new Biden government accounts.

Joe Biden’s personal account, which has 21.7 million followers, will not be affected by the account transfer.

President Donald Trump is known for using his Twitter accounts, both personal and presidential officials, to engage his voters. During his four years in the White House, he posted more than 50,000 messages on Twitter.

However, according to the Factbase website, which tracks Twitter profiles, Trump has lost more than 369,000 followers on his personal account since November.

In the same period, President-elect Joe Biden gained more than 2.6 million followers.

Digital marketing expert Rebecca Lodge of Start Up Disruptors said Twitter’s decision could be a “smart strategy” for the social network.

“With many of Trump’s ‘fans’ they can be quite fanatical, (the decision) may be a smart Twitter strategy to ensure negative and hateful posts are ‘neutralized’ before the president-elect takes office.” says Lodge. .