Twitter Will Reset POTUS Account To Zero Followers For Joe Biden

President-elect Joe Biden will have zero followers on Twitter once he is sworn in on Jan. 20. The micro-blogging website announced that it will remove all the followers from the “POTUS” and “White House” official accounts rather than transfer the existing followers over to the 46th president and his administration.

According to the statement issued by the social media platform, the existing followers will be sent a notification to re-follow the aforementioned accounts once Biden has taken the oath on Inauguration Day, Variety has learned. It also revealed that all the posts from outgoing President Donald Trump will be preserved on new accounts.

The archived tweets from the Trump administration will be looked after by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

“Twitter will notify followers of these accounts to provide context that the content will be archived and allow them the choice to follow the Biden administration’s new accounts,” Variety quoted the Twitter spokesperson as saying.

The news of Biden starting from scratch was later confirmed by Rob Flaherty, the Biden campaign’s digital director, on Twitter. Flaherty wrote that the Trump administration “absorbed all of President Obama’s Twitter followers on @POTUS and @WhiteHouse — at Team 44’s urging.”

“In 2020, Twitter has informed us that as of right now the Biden administration will have to start from zero,” Flaherty added.

Other accounts that will be starting from zero followers after Jan. 20 include @VP, @FLOTUS, @Cabinet, @LaCasaBlanca and @PressSec.

As far as followers are concerned, @POTUS currently has 33.2 million followers on Twitter, while @WhiteHouse has 26 million. On the other hand, @VP has 10.3 million followers and @FLOTUS is followed by more than 16.4 million people.

Meanwhile, it has already been confirmed that the 45th president will not receive special treatment from the social media platform once he leaves the White House. This means that if Trump’s tweets violate the company’s policy, then they will be removed. If he continues to violate guidelines, his account may get suspended too.

“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” Reuters quoted a Twitter spokesperson as saying in November.