(CNN) – US President Joe Biden’s transition team criticized Twitter’s decision not to allow the millions of followers on White House accounts to be automatically retained when they are turned over to the new administration.
When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, his administration inherited the millions of followers for every account transferred by the Obama administration. It was the first transfer of power to Twitter in US history, and at the time, @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts each had more than 13 million followers.
Nearly four years later, the @ POTUS and @ WhiteHouse accounts have 33.2 million and 26 million followers, respectively. A famous and prolific tweeter, Trump retains control of his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, which has 88.5 million followers on the platform.
“In 2016, the Trump administration included all of President Obama’s Twitter followers on @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, on behalf of President’s Team 44,” Biden’s transitional officer Rob Flaherty tweeted Tuesday.
“In 2020, Twitter informed us that Biden’s administration will have to start all over from now on,” said Flaherty.
Flaherty said in a later tweet that this was Twitter’s decision, not the president’s. In another tweet to Nick Pacilio, a Twitter spokesperson, he said he was “happy to share the email thread we responded to and was told it was unequivocal.”
Twitter’s response
Pacilio said in a statement on behalf of Twitter that the multiple White House accounts being transferred “will not automatically maintain their existing followers.”
“Instead, Twitter will notify the followers of these accounts to provide context that the content will be archived and allow them to follow the new accounts of the Biden administration,” Pacilio said. “For example, folks who follow @WhiteHouse will be notified that the account has been filed as @ WhiteHouse45 and will be given the option to follow the new @ WhiteHouse account.”
Pacilio gave no reason for the change when he asked a follow-up question by CNN.
On January 20, the day of Biden’s inauguration, Twitter will facilitate the transfer of @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, @VP, @FLOTUS, @PressSec, @Cabinet and @LaCasaBlanca to Biden’s administration, Pacilio said.
CNN’s Rishi Iyengar and Seth Fiegerman contributed to this report.