We wondered out loud months and months ago what exactly was going to happen to the @POTUS account once Barack Obama left office, and it finally dawned on someone in the administration that having Donald Trump’s photo suddenly appear next to all of Barack Obama’s old tweets wasn’t going to fly.
Former president Bill Clinton, for one, had taken a special interest in the ownership of the @POTUS Twitter handle.
Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend
— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) May 18, 2015
The White House eventually issued its transition plan for its social media accounts, giving Twitter users plenty of warning that Obama’s tweets would be archived under @POTUS44 and that @POTUS would be passed along to the next president, whoever that might be.
Apparently, Twitter’s support staff has been hit with complaints from people who had unfollowed @POTUS so as to keep their social media accounts pure and Trump-free, but were shocked to find that they now followers of Donald Trump, an act that was certainly non-consensual.
WHY WAS I FOLLOWING DONALD TRUMP @support I DID NOT CONSENT TO THIS
— nour (@nourpatour) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/thegarygraham/status/822893494909992961
You need to jump on this now. MILLIONS followed Obama administration. Trump needs to EARN it.
— ?ᵢᵥy ᵢₜ ᵢs? (@TacereSol) January 21, 2017
Pretty sure I blocked Trump's account yesterday and overnight it suddenly became unblocked & I had to unfollow him. WTF @Twitter @Support
— ?????? (@kiyirl) January 21, 2017
What the fuck @Twitter @Support why did you automatically make me follow trump. Wtf this is happening to a lot of people.
— idalia ? (@idalia_topete) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/piefacenina/status/822844438682763267
https://twitter.com/kthornton66/status/822822021537140736
i do NOT appreciate having my twitter auto follow the new Trump administration @jack @support @twitter. FIX THIS GLITCH. that is WRONG.
— bombasticl0ve (@bombasticl0ve) January 21, 2017
@Support @POTUS have you ever read like, ANY dystopian novel #wtf #withoutconsent
— Fifi (@muni_manners) January 21, 2017
Seriously @jack @Support @Twitter mass migrating people to follow #Trump was not cool. Did not appreciate that.
— rodney simba masarirambi ???? (@simba22) January 21, 2017
@Support what's going on? I don't follow Trump, but woke up to his feed coming through! UNFOLLOWED. woke up – IT'S BACK AGAIN. HACKED??
— Jacquie Tellalian (@NormaDesperate) January 21, 2017
We are aware of the issue with migrating @POTUS followers and investigating. More soon.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) January 21, 2017
Yes, it’s the Russians. Or the Klingons. Or the Trump administration stealing followers from Obama. Please remain calm while William Shatner advises on next steps to take.
Stay calm, remain indoors with your tinfoil hats until you get the all clear! ? https://t.co/uzFpgRjwxe
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 21, 2017
While the class actions lawsuits are being drawn up, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey jumped on the service he co-founded to smooth things over.
All: we investigated what happened here, and we made some mistakes (which have been corrected). Some context first. https://t.co/W1n3Xs6LaN
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
The Obama Administration worked with all their platforms to craft a transition plan: https://t.co/cyMrananrg
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
Because @POTUS is an institutional account (not personal) they felt it only fair to transition accounts with followers intact, but 0 tweets.
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
We kicked off that plan at 12p Eastern yesterday: https://t.co/z9DVkI2xAv
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
If you were following @POTUS before 12pET, by end of day you'd be following *two* accounts: @POTUS44 (44th Admin) and @POTUS (45th Admin)
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
Two issues were reported during the day which we spent the night confirming and have now corrected:
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
1. People who followed @POTUS44 (Obama Admin) after 12pET were mistakenly set to also follow @POTUS (Trump Admin).
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
2. Some people who unfollowed @POTUS in the past were mistakenly marked to now follow @POTUS
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
He admits it — hundreds of thousands of people who had unfollowed @POTUS suddenly found themselves following Donald Trump’s official Twitter feed. This is unacceptable, especially considering the dangerous overcrowding in America’s safe spaces already.
We believe this affected about 560,000 people. This was a mistake, it wasn't right, we own it, and we apologize. No excuses.
— jack ??? (@jack) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/Meflies/status/822896088671776768
@Support thought you were better than this. Sad!
— Nina P. (@ukharbour) January 21, 2017
@Support what about people that had never followed these accounts. Really seems like it was done on purpose.
— Dakota (@dakotathemoose) January 21, 2017
@matthewgonzales @jack @Support kinda like being forced fed Trump as our President?
— Kev © (@MrMetKevC) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/sophiacrowley/status/822876539008286721
Yeah, Twitter’s excuse reeks of authoritarianism, and if there’s one thing Americans hate, it’s authoritarianism.
https://twitter.com/Greencoast215/status/822921458863075328
Should really be a non issue and one that folks can fix pretty easily if they have a problem. Your plan of action was reasonable.
— John Gleason (@johnagleason) January 21, 2017
If it’s any help to @support, plenty of progressives seem to have found it easy enough to block us, so they most be familiar with the feature.
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