When President Obama turns over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he’ll also be handing over a number of high-profile social media accounts. Eight days ahead of the election, the White House is outlining how the transfer of social power will go when the commander-in-chief steps aside early next year.
The president’s Twitter account, for one, will be getting a fresh start of sorts, come January 20th. While @Potus’s more than 11 million followers will remain connected to the account (or those who choose to stick around, at least), the feed will make a fresh start.
As already announced, Obama’s tweets will be saved at National Archives and Records Administration and removed from the account, so the next president (presumably Clinton or Trump) will have a clean slate for their own, um, unique brand of social media engagement. They’ll also be transferred to the @Potus44 handle. Existing @WhiteHouse, @FLOTUS, @PressSec and @VP tweets will be archived by NARA, as well.
The same goes for Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and YouTube, as well. The username, URL and followers all stay, but the timeline content gets wiped clean, with older content being moved to URLs like Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse for posterity.