What Happens To Obama’s Social Media Accounts When He Leaves Office?

Details

Publish Date:
November 9, 2016
Author(s):
Source:
Smithsonian
Related Person(s):

Summary

There’s few people who would quibble with the idea that Barack Obama was the first “Social Media President.” Colin Daileda at Mashable points out that president No. 44 was the first to use Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Vimeo, MySpace and Instagram. He appeared on Zach Galifianakis’ digital mock talk show “Between Two Ferns” and was interviewed by YouTube stars after his last State of the Union address in January.

Kori Schulman, Deputy Chief Digital Officer for the White House, writes in a blog post that Obama, as well as the First Lady and Vice President Joe Biden, have produced nearly 30,000 tweets, thousands of hours of video footage, and more than 470,000 We the People petitions. That’s why the White House has laid out a detailed strategy for preserving Obama’s digital legacy as well as the papers, emails and handwritten notes created by his administration.

“Presidents have always wanted to talk to all Americans at once, have them pay attention, and have them believe what they are saying,” Stanford law professor Nate Persily, who studies political communication tells Eilperin. “With the new platforms, not only can President Obama speak directly to ‘the people,’ but he can also target particular messages to audiences that ordinarily would not be paying attention.”

Read More