Twitter, Facebook to Hand Over @POTUS Account to Biden on January 20

The social media companies said on Saturday that Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc would pass ownership of the @POTUS handle to the Joe Biden administration on Jan. 20, Reuters reports.

On all sites, the @POTUS account is the official account of the President of the United States. The U.S. is different from the Twitter account at @realDonaldTrump and the Facebook page at @DonaldTrump. President Donald Trump often uses his articles for blogging.

“Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20th, 2021. As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records,” the company confirmed to Reuters on Saturday.

The social media giants will also hand over other institutional handles - for the White House, vice president and first lady of the United States - on inauguration day.

“In 2017, we worked with both the Obama Administration and incoming Trump Administration to make sure the transition of their Facebook and Instagram accounts was seamless on January 20th, and we expect to do the same here,” Facebook said in response to a query from Reuters.

Politico previously stated that no exchange of information between the outgoing Trump team and the incoming Biden team is needed for the handover of the @POTUS Twitter handle.

It also stated that in the coming months, Twitter would meet with Biden's transition officials and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to discuss the details of how Twitter would be used under the new administration.

Biden, who has hit the two-week mark since becoming president-elect, is planning to take office on Jan. 20, but Trump has failed to concede and attempts to invalidate or reverse the elections in a variety of states by litigation and recalls, alleging systemic voting fraud without proof.