Trump Will Lose Facebook And Instagram POTUS Accounts To Biden Even If He Doesn’t Concede

The social media platforms have both joined Twitter in confirming that the White House, POTUS and FLOTUS accounts will be handed over to President-elect Joe Biden on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021.

A spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram said the company has plans for a ‘seamless’ transition of the accounts, just like it has been done on previous Inauguration Days.

‘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,’ the spokesperson told Reuters.

The statement comes after Twitter confirmed it would be handing over the @POTUS account to Biden on January 20, as well as the @FLOTUS and press secretary Twitter accounts, too.

‘Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20, 2021,’ Nick Pacilio, a spokesperson for Twitter, told CNN.

‘As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration.’

It’s worth noting that Trump’s personal accounts won’t be affected by the transition of the official accounts, which are predominantly used to retweet and share posts from his personal accounts anyway.

However, a recent statement from the social media platform suggested that Trump could face losing his personal Twitter account if he continues to flout the rules.

Twitter has been forced to put up a number of warnings on the incumbent president’s tweets, notifying his followers that they contain disputed or misleading information.

Despite repeatedly breaking the guidelines, Twitter has so far opted to keep his account open and his tweets up, because of the public interest element. While he is still the president, Twitter says it provides ‘a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable,’ as per Bloomberg.

Because of this, a spokesperson explained, there are ‘certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules’.

Once Trump is no longer president, there will no longer be the element of public interest, which could result in the businessman losing his account, if he continues to spread misinformation.

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