This is what will happen to Barack Obama's Twitter account when @realDonaldTrump takes office

1 months ago

As the dust settles on one of the most surprising outcomes in US election history, some of you might be wondering: “What will happen to Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s social media accounts?”

Well the answer is, along with the White House residence, Air Force One and other presidential perks, Obama will have to give up all the official social media accounts to President-elect Trump.

According to Kori Schulman, the current president’s deputy chief digital officer, all tweets from the 44th president will move over to a newly created @POTUS44.

“The handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017,” she writes in a White House blog post. “The account will retain its more than 11 million followers, but start with no tweets on the timeline.”

The same applies to Obama’s all other social media channels.

“On Instagram and Facebook, the incoming White House will gain access to the White House username, URL, and retain the followers, but will start with no content on the timeline,” writes Schulman.

President Obama – Timeline | Facebook

“An archive of White House content that was posted to the Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will continue to be accessible to the public at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse.”

The same will apply to official accounts on platforms including Medium, Tumblr, and YouTube. WhiteHouse.gov will move all assets to ObamaWhiteHouse.gov when Trump takes over.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle …

Schulman says all the material will be preserved with the National Archives and Records Administration, just like previous presidents have done with their handwritten notes, emails, faxes and so on.

“The President has made clear that a smooth transition between administrations is one of his top priorities, and digital is a key component of that effort,” Schulman continues.

“While much of the digital transition is unprecedented in the United States, the peaceful transition of power is not. There are some important principles we can work from.

“Accordingly, we have been working to ensure that our digital transition meets three key goals.”

Obama has been described as the first “social media president”.

Schulman says he was “the first to have @POTUS on Twitter, the first to go live on Facebook from the Oval Office, the first to answer questions from citizens on YouTube, the first to use a filter on Snapchat”.

Some of us will probably remember that moment when Obama sent his first tweet:

Although, we can’t help but wonder what will happen to the @realDonaldTrump Twitter handle: