What Will Happen To President Obama’s Social Media Accounts When He Leaves Office?

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Obama has been the first ‘social media president,’ with thousands of photos and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms informing and entertaining followers.

He was the first president to “go live” on Facebook, to answer questions on YouTube, and to adorn himself with a Snapchat filter. Obama was also the first candidate to harness social media to gain support and followers in his 2008 and 2012 bids for the presidency.

It’s clear a lot of change has occurred in the digital and social media space and the Obama administration has kept up with the times. Now Obama’s time is up and those accounts will be passed on to President-elect Donald J. Trump, who, as we all know, is no stranger to social media.

The Obama administration will be handing over the presidential accounts to Trump with a clean slate. All of President Obama’s posts from the last eight years will be transferred to a new handle, @POTUS44, and into a digital archive with the National Archives and Records Administration, The Washington Post reports. Similarly, the vice president’s and the first lady’s social media accounts will be given to Mike Pence and Melania Trump, respectively.

Obama will, of course, still have his personal Twitter account (@BarackObama) but lose the presidential one (@POTUS).

It is unclear what will happen with We The People, an online petitioning system that allows citizens to sign their names to topics they want the president to address. The system, set up in 2011, facilitates a direct dialogue between the general populace and the president. If a petition gets over 100,000 signatures, the president is forced to respond. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that Trump will maintain this modern tradition. Still, if you want to cheer yourself up and reread Obama’s tweets and Facebook posts or view his YouTube videos, they will still be available on the platform.