The President-elect is participating in March 2009( according to his Twitter profile) and he, or whoever else controls his account, has sent more than 34,300 tweets over those virtually eight years.
But Friday he and his administration will be inheriting a lot more power within the network. No longer will President Barack Obama the man who oversaw and pushed a rapid embracing of digital media operate the @POTUS account.
Beyond inheriting Air Force One, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the codes for roughly 4,500 nuclear weapons, Trump and his administration Friday will be the proud new proprietors of the @POTUS Twitter account, which currently boasts 13 million followers.
The process is a bit complex in part because it’s something that has never happened before, at the least in the United States, so Mashable is here to walk you through what we know and what you need to know.
When does it happen?
Trump will be sworn in some time after 12 p.m. ET Friday. Obama and his administration will have access to the account during the morning hours.
Conveniently, you can watch all of this magical happen on Twitter. The platform will have a live video river of the inauguration, plus accompanying coverage with PBS NewsHour.
You can expect Obama’s team to send off one last tweet, and you can expect it’ll be inspiring not unlike what happened when Obama was elected and re-elected.
It may be one of the most retweeted tweets of all time.
What happens to @ POTUS?
At some point Friday, the engineers at Twitter will stimulate magical happen. The tweets sent by the Obama administration and the followers the administration gained will transfer to a new handle: @POTUS44.
Additionally, Twitter users who followed @POTUS will automatically follow the @POTUS44 account Friday, which will serve as an repository of the old tweets. That account and manyothers that are undergoing a similar transfer are already up.
Image: twitter screenshot
The account is private and will become public Friday during the transition.
You also can already watch what that looks like via other members of the Obama administration who have archived their accounts ahead of Inauguration Day.
Image: twitter screenshot
These accounts will be maintained by the National Archive and Records Administration.
The @ POTUS account will no longer have tweets but will retain all the followers. Therefore, you are able to automatically be following an account run by the Trump administration. Turns out Twitter thought it was weird if they just booted people off from following the president’s official account no matter who you voted for on Election Day.
This duplication of followers may take a second. So brace yourself for people taking screenshots that imply Trump deleted Obama’s Twitter followers.
That won’t is correct to say at first but Trump could certainly decide do that on his own at some point.
What if I don’t want to follow @POTUS under Trump?
Press the unfollow button Friday or right now.
What if I want to keep following Obama’s tweets?
The @ POTUS4 4 account( what was once @POTUS) will simply be an repository of tweets. So don’t expect that to be updated.
Instead, you can find all your favorite father joke tweets and golfing tweets and whatever else civilian Obama decides to tweet about at @BarackObama.
@POTUS: Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Genuinely! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.
Previously that account was managed by Organizing for Action, the nonprofit behind Obama’s presidential campaign, and instead those personal tweets were signed by “-BO at @POTUS. “
Michelle Obama can also be found on her account @MichelleObama and @FLOTUS will be passed onto Melania Trump, though it’s quite unclear if she’ll use it?
For future updates from Mrs. Obama, be sure to follow @MichelleObama.
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