CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — Twitter will hand over the @POTUS account to president-elect Joe Biden as soon as he’s sworn in on Jan. 20 even if current President Donald Trump hasn’t conceded.
Twitter said the transfer of the presidential handle will be automatic, as will the accounts for @whitehouse, @VP, and @FLOTUS and a handful of other official accounts associated with the presidency.
“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,” the company confirmed to Reuters on Saturday.
Twitter said all Trump’s tweets will be archived, as have those of former President Barack Obama, who was the first president to use the account.
Removing Trump’s access to the @POTUS account won’t cut some elements of his reach. Trump has maintained 88.9 million followers on his personal account. The presidential account has more than 32 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 said it will meet with the Biden transition team to explain how the account will operate from now on.