For the past eight years, President Barack Obama has been the owner of the official @POTUS Twitter account, but today, there’s a new POTUS in town. Twitter is passing on the digital torch, but don’t worry, if you don’t want to follow our new president’s @POTUS adventures, you won’t have to. Here’s how the transition works.
If you previously followed @POTUS, Twitter will automatically keep you as a follower of @POTUS44—the now-archival Twitter feed of Obama’s presidency, which has 13.8 million followers. Twitter will also automatically unfollow you from the @POTUS account. If you want to follow the new @POTUS, you can head here to follow him. (Trump’s new account currently 4.19 million followers at the time of publishing.)
Similarly, First Lady Michelle Obama’s tweets will be archived at @FLOTUS44. If you followed @FLOTUS, you will now see that you follow @FLOTUS44. Our new First Lady now has the reigns of the @FLOTUS Twitter handle. Twitter and the White House team are using a similar strategy for Joe Biden and the @VP account: existing @VP followers will see they now follow @VP44, and those who want to follow Vice President Mike Pence can follow @VP.
After January 20, 2017: @POTUS → @BarackObama @VP → @JoeBiden
— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) January 17, 2017
Learn more: https://t.co/BscnvS4whh
As seen in the tweet above, President Obama and former FLOTUS Michelle Obama can also still be followed at @BarackObama (which has 80.8 million followers) and @MichelleObama (6.03 million followers).
Trump’s transition team says that the new president will continue to tweet from his @realdonaldtrump account, while the @POTUS account will be used for official business. Following his inauguration address, it appears there is no official business yet deemed tweet-worthy (@VP, on the other hand, has tweeted once.)
It is the honor of my life to serve our country, alongside President @realDonaldTrump, as the 48th Vice President of the United States. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/FMxqI9Z2Lq
— Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) January 20, 2017
Outside of Twitter, the new White House administration will take over the official White House Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, and YouTube accounts.
H/T BBC
