Washington, United States | AFP |
The White House announced plans Monday for the transfer of power, online power that is — in the form of Twitter and other social media accounts with millions of followers.
“The handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017,” deputy chief digital officer Kori Schulman wrote, fittingly, in a blog post.
Obama’s White House has aggressively used social media to bypass journalists and appeal unfiltered and unfact-checked to voters.
Obama has granted a host of interviews with platforms like Snapchat and YouTube to talk about his administration’s priorities while avoiding the most bothersome questions.
The administration has logged nearly 30,000 @WhiteHouse tweets and thousands of hours of video footage.
The new president, whoever he or she is, will inherit a potent digital megaphone.
The @POTUS handle alone has more than 11 million followers, and the White House more than 12 million