Joe Biden will be handed the keys to the POTUS Twitter account on Inauguration Day
Whether Trump concedes or not.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
President-elect Joe Biden will be given the login for the "POTUS" (aka President of the United States) Twitter account the day he's sworn into office, the social media site said Friday. The handover will occur even if current President Donald Trump continues refusing to concede, according to a Friday report from Politico.
"Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021," Twitter told CNET in an emailed statement. "As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration."
Read more: Stimulus package negotiations: Here's where a second check stands
Though the changeover may not change the current president's tweeting arrangements -- he's always stuck to his personal handle @realDonaldTrump -- Trump will soon have to follow the same rules on Twitter as everyone else, or risk having any rule-breaking tweets of his removed by Twitter. That's because once Trump is no longer president, his tweets won't be granted the "public interest" exceptions the social network has for government leaders.
This policy only "applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions," a Twitter spokesperson said earlier in November.