Approximately 560,000 people were affected by Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a flaw in the script used to migrate followers to the new archival handles . `` If you were following @ POTUS before 12pET , by end of day you 'd be following * two * accounts : @ POTUS44 ( 44th Admin ) and @ POTUS ( 45th Admin ) , '' Dorsey tweeted . Dorsey apologized for Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the mistake , and said Twitter has worked to correct Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the issue . He did add , however , that the Obama Administration felt it was fair to automatically migrate followers after the transition , since @ POTUS is an institutional account . One of the most visible transfers of executive power happened today on Twitter . The official @ POTUS account was handed off to President Trump , and former-President Obama re-assumed his personal handle , @ BarackObama . ( Trump predictably continued to tweet from his personal account long into the inauguration , however . ) Michelle and I are off on a quick vacation , then we 'll get back to work . But some Twitter users are complaining that despite never following @ POTUS in the first place , the presidential handle is suddenly showing up in their timelines . Somehow , they claim , Twitter had automatically followed it for them . Folks : Check if you 're following GraemeJanuary 21 , 2017 `` I specifically UNFOLLOWED this account earlier today . Yet now I am following it again without having resubscribed , '' one user tweeted . `` @ POTUS turned up in my feed despite me not following , willingly or otherwise , '' said another person . A spokesperson for Twitter told Motherboard they could n't comment on these specific claims , but said that post-inauguration , Twitter automatically migrated the followers of @ POTUS over to the newly created @ POTUS44 account , which acts as an archive for President Obama 's tweets . The same was done for @ FLOTUS44 , belonging to Michelle Obama , and @ VP44 , belonging to former-Vice President Biden . As you can see , both versions have somewhat similar follower counts .