This is how the White House is readying for a digital transition
When President Barack Obama leaves the White House for the last time in January 2017, he won't just be handing off the physical aspects of the Oval Office.
When he goes, he'll have to pass on a trove of digital tools and material he and his staff have built and collected during his eight years in office.
Obama is often referred to as the first "social media president."
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He and his staff have built a digital identity around him and set precedent after precedent for how a president can communicate with his or her constituents from the nation's highest elected office.
Obama was the first president to grab @POTUS on Twitter, the first to use a Snapchat filter, the first to use Facebook Live.
As the White House laid out in a blog highlighting their digital transition policies on Monday, Obama was the first president to grab @POTUS on Twitter, the first to use a Snapchat filter, the first to use Facebook Live, and more.
So where does all that material go? And will President Clinton or Trump get @POTUS?
The digital material will all be sent off to the National Archives and Records Administration just like any old fax or paper note from back in the day, according to the blog post. That includes Obama's tweets and even his snaps, so don't ever let anyone tell you your snaps disappear forever once you can't see them anymore.
Those materials will also be preserved in a more readily available form "wherever possible." That means Obama's @POTUS tweets will be transferred to a new account, @POTUS44, to be handled by the National Archives and Records Administration. Similar accounts will be set up for the Obama administration's Instagram and Facebook posts.
The president's staff also plans to have much of his social media material ready for download by the time Obama's term is up, so it's ready and easy to access for fans and researchers and whoever else wants to take a look.
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As for the White House's accounts themselves, including @POTUS, they'll be wiped clean while maintaining their followers. That'll prevent any jarring difference in message and, that way, each successive president will have a clean digital slate. @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President on January 20, 2017.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
