Joe Biden must start presidential Twitter profiles at zero as Trump refuses to turn over accounts

President-elect Joe Biden will start his official Twitter accounts from scratch after taking office next month.

President Donald Trump absorbed all of his predecessor's followers on the official @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts, at Barack Obama's suggestion, but Biden's digital director confirmed that Twitter will not transfer those social media followers to the president-elect.

"In 2016, the Trump admin absorbed all of President Obama's Twitter followers on @POTUS and @WhiteHouse -- at Team 44's urging," Flaherty tweeted. "In 2020, Twitter has informed us that as of right now the Biden administration will have to start from zero."

Freelance journalist Hugo Lowell reported that the Trump administration was refusing to turn over the keys to those two official accounts to the Biden transition team.

The @POTUS account has 33.2 million followers and @WhiteHouse account has 26 million followers.

Trump's personal account has 88.5 million followers, compared to 21.6 million for Biden's personal account.