The Biden team is calling out to Twitter over its plan to erase the followers from the White House

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Nearly four years later, the accounts @POTUS and @WhiteHouse have 33.2 million and 26 million followers respectively. A famously prolific tweeter, Trump retains control of his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, which has 88.5 million followers on the platform.

“In 2020, Twitter informed us that Biden’s government must start from scratch from now on,” said Flaherty.

Flaherty said in a later tweet that this was Twitter’s decision, not the president’s. He said in a separate tweet addressed to Nick Pacilio, a Twitter spokesperson said he was “happy to share the email thread where we went back and were told this was unequivocal.”

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 followers of these accounts to provide context that the content will be archived and give them the choice to follow the new Biden administration accounts,” 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 asked in a follow-up question by CNN.

On January 20, the day Biden is inaugurated, Twitter will facilitate the transfer of @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, @VP, @FLOTUS, @PressSec, @Cabinet and @LaCasaBlanca to Biden’s administration, according to Pacilio.

CNN’s Rishi Iyengar and Seth Fiegerman contributed to this report.

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