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Twitter Will Offer @SecondGentleman Account For Doug Emhoff; Outlines Plans For Transfer To Joe Biden’s Administration

Twitter outlined how it plans to transfer institutional accounts to Joe Biden’s administration, confirming that they will not automatically retain followers from the previous administration.

The platform also said that a new account, @secondgentleman, will be launched to be used by Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“People on Twitter will be able to watch the transition of power take place in real-time as accounts for the White House, President, Vice President, First Lady and White House Press Secretary inherit their new institutional usernames: @Transition46 will become @WhiteHouse, @PresElectBiden will become @POTUS, @SenKamalaHarris will become @VP, @FLOTUSBiden will become @FLOTUS, and @PressSecPsaki will become @PressSec. The Tweets, account history, and followers will transition between these accounts.”

But the accounts won’t automatically inherit the followers from the previous administration. Instead, Twitter said followers will receive in-app alerts and other prompts, with the option to follow the new administration’s accounts.

On Thursday, Biden posted his first tweet on the @preselectbiden account, which so far has almost 500,000 followers.

“Folks — This will be the account for my official duties as President. At 12:01 PM on January 20th, it will become @POTUS. Until then, I’ll be using @JoeBiden. And while you’re here, follow @FLOTUSBiden @SenKamalaHarris @SecondGentleman and @Transition46.”

Donald Trump’s @POTUS account will be transferred to the National Archives and publicly available as @POTUS45. His @realdonaldtrump account was his own personal account, but Trump was permanently suspended last week following the siege on the Capitol.