President Obama Gets His Own Twitter Account After Six Years
President Obama has his own personal Twitter account after six years of being in the White House, according to Time. After all, he is the the most followed world leader on Twitter, reports the New York Times.
The White House says @POTUS is an account where the president can engage directly with the American people.
“President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.”
Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) May 18, 2015
President Obama has not been entirely absent from Twitter. He already had two Twitter accounts, @WhiteHouse and @BarackObama, but they are managed by the Administration and Organizing for Action. The president’s official feed has 59.3 million followers. His own tweets from those accounts are signed “— bo.”
“The president can control this third Twitter account, @POTUS, himself.”
People are commenting on the president’s short bio that reads: “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States.” The header photo at the top of his account page is a picture with his family as they all hold hands when crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the anniversary of the iconic civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, last March.
Michelle Obama, @FLOTUS, sent her husband a tweet within a couple of hours of the launching of @POTUS.
It's about time, @POTUS! –mo
— First Lady- Archived (@FLOTUS44) May 18, 2015
Within half an hour of having @POTUS, the President of the United States had almost 100,000 followers. The number of followers continues to grow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH_ijgiH4vc
According to NPR, President Obama is already following 65 people, including Bill Clinton, George Bush, and @FLOTUS, the First Lady’s account. He is following the Chicago sports teams such as the Blackhawks, White Sox, Bears, and Bulls. Some cabinet officers and executive agencies are on his list.
He’s also following Columbia, Harvard, and Occidental, the three colleges and universities he attended. He has not followed any celebrities or journalists yet.
President Obama joins 302 million people who having been using Twitter since it was launched in 2006. Former Pope Benedict XVI attracted nearly 280,000 followers to his English Twitter account on its first day when he launched it in December, 2012.
The account is now run by Pope Francis and has 6.1 million followers. It follows eight other accounts, which all belong to Pope Francis, who tweets in different languages.
What do you think about the President of the United States having his own Twitter account? Are you interested in following him?
[Image via Getty Images]
