Civic News
Federal government / Social media

What happens to @POTUS when we get a new POTUS?

We're about to go through a first-of-its-kind digital transition.

The White House. (Technical.ly photo)

To be honest, I’ve been wondering about the question in the headline for a while now. And on Monday, in a blog post, the White House kindly decided to answer. But the thing I don’t think I’d paid adequate attention to until I read that blog post is the fact that, President Barack Obama being the first “social media president,” his administration is actually creating this new kind of transition protocol.


That’s pretty cool — so how will it all work?
Essentially, all general presidential or White House-related handles and accounts will be scrubbed and turned over to the next administration. This goes for the likes on @POTUS, @FLOTUS and @WhiteHouse on Twitter, as well as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat (!) accounts.
POTUS being POTUS, though, all of the content tweeted or facebooked or instagrammed or snapped from the accounts will be saved as a matter of public record. Thus all of the content will be transitioned to newly created accounts (@POTUS44, for example) and maintained by the National Archives. White House staff accounts, like @DJ44, will also be archived.
Along the same lines, Obama’s WhiteHouse.gov will be frozen and preserved at ObamaWhiteHouse.gov, and first domain will be made available for the incoming administration. This piece of the digital transition has been done before, after both the Clinton and Bush terms.
In addition to all this, the Obama administration is committing to opening up all social media data to “folks who are interested in building something for the public.” Sound like you? Submit a project idea here.

Companies: White House
Engagement

Join the conversation!

Find news, events, jobs and people who share your interests on Technical.ly's open community Slack

Trending

DC daily roundup: Washington Post's AI collab; a greentech glossary; Halcyon's debut Climate Fellowship cohort

DC daily roundup: Inside UMCP's new ethical AI project; HBCU founder excellence; a big VC shutters MoCo office

DC daily roundup: Esports at Maryland rec center; High schoolers' brain algorithm; Power data centers with coal?

The Washington Post is developing an AI-powered answer tool informed by its coverage

Technically Media