The Legacy Continues: President Obama’s Digital Footprint to Survive His Term

As President Obama’s term of office concludes on the noon of January 20, a remarkable transition in contemporary American politics will be experienced – the inheritance of a president’s digital persona. While constitutionally he is required to pass on his presidential powers to the President-elect Trump, in an unprecedented move, the social media accounts of the outgoing president will be similarly transferred. This implies that not just will the new president step into Obama’s shoes policy-wise, but will also gain immediate access to the millions of followers on outgoing president’s social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Fans of President Obama and ardent researchers need not despair. A rich archive containing Obama administration’s tweets, Facebook posts, videos, GIFs, and more is available for your exploration. Yesterday, a [blog post](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2017/01/05/new-lenses-first-social-media-presidency) from Joshua Miller, the Director of Product Management at the White House, revealed several platforms presently involved in this vast online archiving project. [ArchiveSocial](http://archivesocial.com/whitehouse) alone holds over 250,000 posts, videos, and photos shared by the White House staff during Obama’s tenure, all available for personal research.

Empirical proof of the expansive archive’s efficacy lies in that a search for Joe Biden, the current Vice President, brought up over 5,000 results. ArchiveSocial is not alone in this endeavor. Look no further than [Giphy](http://giphy.com/Obama) and Rhizome for their efforts to archive the White House posts. The Twitter handle [@Relive44](https://twitter.com/relive44) intends to retweet significant moments from the Obama presidency, commencing from May 1, 2017, which marks the anniversary of President Obama’s first-ever tweet on May 1, 2009.

The breathtakingly extensive digital archive not only preserves the trill of the Obama era but also presents a fascinating look into the future of presidential archiving. The first president to be extensively on social media, Obama’s digital legacy makes it almost certain that successors will have their social media activities meticulously archived for future reference. This, the continuation of a president’s online presence long after the end of their term, is a striking new chapter in the democracy’s digital era.