Inarguably the first American President of the digital age, Barack Obama has made an effort to keep up with technology all throughout his presidency. The efforts have led to a variety of issues that past Presidents have never dealt with. Amongst those, what will happen to Obama's @POTUS Twitter handle? What will happen to First Lady Michelle Obama's @FLOTUS account, which has garnered 5.7 million followers in eight years?
As part of the White House's digital transition plan, which was announced on Monday, the Obamas will officially relinquish their social media accounts come January 2017 and they will be claimed by the new First Family.
All tweets by @POTUS will be collected under a new account, @POTUS44, while either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will take over the former account and its 11 million followers.
As for Facebook and Instagram, all posts will be transitioned to new accounts named "Obama White House," which will archive all materials as a new President takes over the currently used accounts.
The strategy includes a plan to archive all published online materials associated to the Obamas. "From tweets to snaps, all of the materials we've published online will be preserved with [the] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)," says the statement, which is where all written records pertaining to past Presidents can be found. All materials will be available to the public.
The NARA is also brainstorming creative ways to archive eight years worth of materials. Have a suggestion? Submit it right here.