@POTUS: How the transfer of power on social media will unfold

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On Wednesday, Biden and his team will have access to a long list of official government accounts on the major social media platforms, including the @POTUS account on Twitter. At the push of a button, the Biden administration will inherit a digital megaphone with the potential to make news and shape the US government’s public image.

The transfer of these official accounts, including not just the accounts representing Biden and the White House, but almost every branch of the government, has emerged as an important aspect of the wider transfer of power, especially after Twitter became the president’s favorite online platform Donald Trump became. .

“It certainly has great symbolic value,” said David Lazer, a professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern University. “Twitter’s central place in Trump’s brand and identity has made the moment much more important.”

Trump is losing his powerful social media machine. What now?
In addition to the @POTUS account, created during the Obama administration, Twitter will transfer @WhiteHouse, @VP, @FLOTUS and @PressSec to the new administration. Twitter has also created a new account, @SecondGentleman, for Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
It only marks the second such transition between US presidential administrations for Twitter, which began in 2006. But unlike the transition four years ago, the Biden government will not inherit the tens of millions of followers on every account. Instead, people on Twitter who previously followed official White House Twitter accounts or who are currently following ‘relevant’ Twitter or Biden or Harris accounts will receive in-app notifications and other notifications about the filing process and the ability to to follow the new accounts, the company said in one blog post.
The decision sparked criticism from the Biden camp, which said it is “unnecessarily politicizing what would otherwise be a routine transfer of communications from one administration to another”. From Tuesday evening the @ POTUS account had approximately 33 million followers, while the @ FLOTUS and @ VP accounts had 16 million and 10 million respectively.

Twitter’s approach stands in contrast to other social networks such as Snapchat and YouTube, who said the Biden administration would keep current followers on the respective White House accounts.

Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will transfer accounts on both platforms, such as the POTUS and FLOTUS Facebook pages and the White House Instagram account, to Biden’s team. These platforms will also duplicate the followers on Joe Biden’s Facebook page and Instagram account to the official POTUS page and account.

Although the Biden team may not inherit everything the Twitter followers, it won’t start all over again. Biden’s @ Transition46 account Twitter becomes @WhiteHouse, @ PresElectBiden account becomes @POTUS, @SenKamalaHarris becomes @VP, @FLOTUSBiden becomes @FLOTUS and @PressSecPsaki becomes @PressSec.

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