Biden Twitter Account Starts With Zero Followers

Joe Biden has launched his new official presidential Twitter account, but was forced to start it with zero followers. The president-elect’s campaign is said to be unhappy with the move, which marks a change from the previous transition when Barack Obama left office.

Twitter recently said that Biden’s account won't automatically retain its existing followers. Instead, Twitter will give followers the option to follow accounts under the Biden administration. 

This is a reversal from what Twitter did in 2017 when the Trump administration took over accounts from the Obama administration. Then, Twitter essentially duplicated the existing accounts, creating an archive of Obama-era tweets and followers and building a new set of accounts for the incoming administration that retained all of those followers without any of the tweets.

Social media helps people, including the president, instantly disseminate a message to a large number of people online. Twitter's decision to not automatically transfer followers could limit the number of people the upcoming administration will be able to reach on the web. 

The Biden campaign is unhappy with the move, which marks a change from the previous transition from Barack Obama.
The new account, @PresElectBiden, transformed into the official @POTUS (President of the United States) one on inauguration day on 20 January. Mr Biden's own account had 24 million followers, whereas the new @POTUS account presently has just 6.3 million followers, a week after the event.

His team has also registered new accounts - @FLOTUSBiden for the future first lady. Mr Biden's team was told about the move less than a month ago, and said it meant "the administration will have to start from zero".

Twitter has not explained why the decision was made, and said it had nothing further to add to its official blog.  In that post it said: "These institutional accounts will not automatically retain the followers from the prior administration," without a reason why.

Obama was the first US leader to have an official Twitter account. The @POTUS account was set up during his tenure in 2015.At the end of his second term, a transition plan for handing over the official accounts to Mr Trump was drawn up - with @POTUS going to the new administration. It said that the White House has been using a special archiving tool to capture all content, including deleted tweets because of the Presidential Records Act of 1978   mandating the preservation of all presidential records.

A key goal of the Obama transition was to keep social media posts on the platforms where they were created, but  Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from its platform and it remains unclear if it will ever archive his account for posterity.

Bloomberg:         CNet:        BBC:         Standard:        The Verge

You Might Also Read: 

Social Media Is Being Used To Turn Truth Upside Down:

 

« Warning: Ransomware Attacks On Virtual Classrooms
Crypto Currency Users Hijacked »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Check Point

Directory of Suppliers

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North Infosec Testing (North IT)

North IT (North Infosec Testing) are an award-winning provider of web, software, and application penetration testing.

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD offers expert-led cybersecurity training to help organisations safeguard their operations and data.

Directory of Cyber Security Suppliers

Directory of Cyber Security Suppliers

Our Supplier Directory lists 8,000+ specialist cyber security service providers in 128 countries worldwide. IS YOUR ORGANISATION LISTED?

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

Trustwave

Trustwave

Trustwave is a leader in managed detection and response (MDR), managed security services (MSS), consulting and professional services, database security, and email security.

CERT.AZ

CERT.AZ

The national Cyber Security Center of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

TZ-CERT

TZ-CERT

TZ-CERT is the National Computer Emergence Response Team of Tanzania.

RedShield Security

RedShield Security

RedShield is the world's first web application shielding-with-a-service company.

Slovak National Accreditation Service (SNAS)

Slovak National Accreditation Service (SNAS)

SNAS is the national accreditation body for Slovakia. The directory of members provides details of organisations offering certification services for ISO 27001.

Grayshift

Grayshift

Grayshift is the leading provider of mobile device digital forensics, specializing in lawful access and extraction.

SightGain

SightGain

SightGain is the only integrated risk management solution focused on cybersecurity readiness using real-world attack simulations in your live environment.

RNTrust

RNTrust

RNTrust provide solutions to meet today’s digital challenges utilizing digital technologies and services to make you more secured in digitally connected environment.

RedHunt Labs

RedHunt Labs

RedHunt Labs is a premier Cybersecurity Solutions provider, offering Attack Surface Management solution 'NVADR' and Penetration Testing services.

DataSixth Security Consulting

DataSixth Security Consulting

DataSixth delivers Cybersecurity Intelligence. With our unique capabilities, we’re able to deliver value, deliver answers, and deliver actionable security intelligence.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

Responsive Technology Partners

Responsive Technology Partners

Responsive Technology Partners provides superior IT support services including cybersecurity and compliance, telephony, cloud services, cabling, access control, and camera systems.

Cysurance

Cysurance

Cysurance is a next-generation risk mitigation company that insures, warranties and certifies security solutions.

Rescana

Rescana

Rescana offers a cyber risk management platform with the vision to remove the security team bottlenecks, accelerating business processes that require risk assessment.

FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes.

Axoflow

Axoflow

Axoflow helps organizations to consolidate their existing solutions for logs, metrics, and traces, and evolve them into a cloud native observability infrastructure.