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JANUARY 21, 2021 | The Jewish Home
A New Twitter Acct
Joe Biden will be forced to use a Twitter account with zero followers on his first day in office after the social media giant refused to gift him
President Donald Trump’s 88 million followers. Biden launched a new account under the @PresElectBiden handle on Saturday. The account becomes the official @POTUS (President of the United States) after he is sworn in on Wednesday, January 20 to become the 46th President of the United States. The president-elect gained 400,000 new followers within 12 hours to add to the 24 million followers on Biden’s personal Twitter account. His transition team also launched @FLOTUSBiden for Jill Biden and @SecondGentleman for Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden was forced to start from scratch after Twitter refused to
award him Trump’s followers in what marked a shift from past instances. While Trump had inherited Obama’s 13 million followers after entering the White House in 2017, the social media giant informed the Biden team in December that it would not continue this policy. “These institutional accounts will not automatically retain the followers from the prior administration,” said Twitter in a statement. A spokesperson added that “the company goal was to support the archiving and transition of accounts across administrations.” Twitter’s decision frustrated Biden’s transition team, which first pressured the social media giant to reverse the policy shift before going public with its concerns.
“They are advantaging President Trump’s first days of the administration over ours,” said Rob Flaherty, who directs Biden’s digital team. “If we don’t end the day with the 12 million followers that Donald Trump inherited from Barack Obama, then they have given us less than they gave Donald Trump, and that is a failure.”
WhatsApp Halts Privacy Change Popular messaging app WhatsApp walked back proposed changes to its privacy policies amid mounting criticism from users. The company announced that it
A Transfer of Power
O
n Wednesday, January 20, 2021, Joseph R. Biden became the 46th president of the United States. In his speech to the nation at the presidential inauguration, Biden announced that “democracy has prevailed” and called on Americans to unite and confront the challenges before them. “This is America’s day,” the 78-year-old said. “This is democracy’s day. A day in history and hope, of renewal and resolve.” Biden spoke for 21 minutes when he addressed the nation on the balcony of the U.S. Capitol. He had been sworn in minutes before by Chief Justice John Roberts. Instead of the usual throngs of people attending the presidential inauguration, the Mall was filled with American flags. National Guardsmen and police officers patrolled the nation’s capital. “Today, we celebrate the triumph, not of a candidate, but of a cause: the cause of democracy. The people – the will of the people – has
been heard,” Biden said. “We’ve learned again, that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.” Biden endeavored to strike a hopeful tone, pledging to be a “president for all Americans.” “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue,” he said, “rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.” At the inauguration ceremony, Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States. She made history by being the first female to fill the role. She was sworn in by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a trailblazer in her own right as the first Latina justice on the high court. Former President Trump skipped the inauguration, although former Vice President Pence and his wife did attend along with former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton. Trump left to Florida earlier in the day. He spoke for nine minutes at Joint Base Andrews in suburban
Maryland after alighting Air Force One. “I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success,” Trump told a few hundred supporters gathered at the base outside Washington. “They have the foundation to do something really spectacular. “A goodbye. We love you,” he said. “We will be back in some form.” According to reports, Biden was set to sign 15 orders on his first day of office, including resetting the U.S.
relationship with the World Health Organization, rejoining the Paris climate accord, and reversing travel restrictions on several predominately Muslim countries. In concluding his address to the nation, Biden said, “Together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear, of unity, not division. “May this be the story that guides us. The story that inspires us. And the story that tells ages yet to come – that we answered the call of history. We met the moment.”
