Obama to hand digital keys to successor

The new president will inherit a potent digital megaphone

WASHINGTON: The White House announced plans Monday for the transfer of power, online power that is -- in the form of Twitter and other social media accounts with millions of followers.

"The handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017," deputy chief digital officer Kori Schulman wrote, fittingly, in a blog post.



Obama's White House has aggressively used social media to bypass journalists and appeal unfiltered and unfact-checked to voters.

Obama has granted a host of interviews with platforms like Snapchat and YouTube to talk about his administration's priorities while avoiding the most bothersome questions.



The administration has logged nearly 30,000 @WhiteHouse tweets and thousands of hours of video footage.

The new president, whoever he or she is, will inherit a potent digital megaphone.

The @POTUS handle alone has more than 11 million followers, and the White House more than 12 million.