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President-elect Joe Biden will get official POTUS account on inauguration, Trump's tweets to be archived: Twitter

The statement from the social media giant comes even as President Donald Trump has refused to concede in the 2020 presidential elections

Twitter, the popular microblogging site, on Friday, November 20, said that it will hand over the control of the presidential @POTUS account to President-elect Joe Biden when he is sworn in on Inauguration day in January. The statement from the social media giant comes even as President Donald Trump has refused to concede in the 2020 presidential elections.

Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio, in an emailed statement to Politico said that Twitter is "actively preparing to support the transition of White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20, 2021." The spokesperson added that the process is being done in consultation with the National Archives, as it was done in 2017 when Trump was assuming office. The handover will result in all the existing tweets by Trump on that account, including the accounts of @FLOTUS, @VP, and other officials, to be archived. The accounts will then be reset to zero tweets and transferred to Biden and his administration on Inauguration day.

Trump, who has still not conceded defeat despite Georgia declaring that President-elect Joe Biden won the state after a recount, used Twitter to build his political brand and later to wield the power of presidency. The Republican, however, mainly uses his personal Twitter account @realDonaldTrump, which has 88 million followers, compared to @POTUS' 32 million. The latter is largely used by his White House to retweet Trump's personal account and other administrative accounts. Biden, in comparison to Trump, is a more sedate Twitter user and has tweeted less than 7,000 tweets to his 19 million followers, compared to the Republican's 58,000.

The president's campaign has filed multiple lawsuits against some battleground states claiming fraud in the election process, without providing any evidence to back their claims. Republican Senator Mitt Romney, in a statement on November 20, denounced Trump and said that the president was attempting to "subvert will of the people" in an "undemocratic" attempt to overturn the results of the election.

The latest statement from Twitter comes amid months of skirmishes between the micro-blogging site and the president. Twitter has increasingly flagged Trump's tweets, especially his latest claims of winning the presidential election. President Trump, on May 27, had also threatened to shut down social media networks. His threat came nearly a day after Twitter began fact-checking the contents of his tweets. Trump, in his tweet, hit out at social media platforms, stating that Republicans feel that these platforms silence conservative voices and that his administration would either strongly regulate or shut these platforms in the country.

"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," Trump tweeted. "We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!" he added in his tweet.