by 
Updated on December 10, 2021
The United States elects a new President on Tuesday. (Remember to vote, people!)
The next US president will get the rights to the official presidential social media accounts. But how will the transfer of social media power happen when President Obama leaves office in January?
The White House has released a plan outlining how the transfer will happen. Engadget also wrote about a few other details of the transfer.
I’m writing this post under the assumption the next president will be Clinton. Unless there’s a large block of comment section trolls not showing up in polls, there’s little way Trump can realistically win… thank goodness. (If he does win, I’ll have more important things to worry about than a missed prognostication.)
President Obama will give control of the current presidential Twitter account (@POTUS) to the next president. Obama’s tweets will be transferred to a former Presidential Twitter account (@POTUS44). That way, the next president gets to start their Twitter account with a fresh slate.
The same will go for Michelle Obama’s tweets as First Lady (@FLOTUS). Her tweets will go to a new, former First Lady account (@FLTOUS44). However, it’s not determined yet what Twitter handle Bill Clinton as the nation’s first First Gentleman would get. Use the @FLTOUS account as-is? Ask the owner of @FGOTUS (a Clinton fan) for their screen handle? Come up with something new/neutral?
Facebook and Instagram
The new president will get the current White House Facebook and Instagram accounts. The pages for Obama and the Obama-era White House will be moved to special archived pages. The National Archives will maintain the archived pages. The archived pages are:
Other
Snapchat, YouTube, and the White House’s pages will also be similarly archived by the National Archives.
Preserving the president’s online presence is important for historical purposes. Thus, it’s good that they’re taking steps now. The next president begins their term on January 20, 2017.
