PMO twitter account to be handed over to new dispensation: PMO

NEW DELHI: A day after a controversy erupted on the Prime Minister’s Office renaming its official Twitter handle just before Narendra Modi was to take office, the PMO has said the microblogging account, @PMOIndia, has been secured by Twitter and that it will be handed over to the incoming PMO.

Twitter is helping to hand over the account to the PMO so that it will be available to the next administration along with its followers, the PMO said in a statement on its digital assets on Wednesday. “The existing material on Dr Manmohan Singh will be separately available under a new account on Twitter,” it said.

On the day Modi was meeting the President to stake claim to form the government, the office of Singh renamed the prime minister’s Twitter handle to @PMOIndiaArchive, while the original account was acquired by an unidentified person. The original account had 1.24 million followers.

“All PMO Internet-based platforms and communications therein will continue to remain under the administrative control and management of the PMO after the changeover of the government,” the statement said. “The transfer of these digital assets to the incoming PMO administration has been arranged.

The archiving process is underway so that all archived material can also be available to the public.” The statement listed the four Internetbased platforms that the PMO has – its official pmindia.gov.in website, Twitter handle @PMOlndiaArchive, Facebook page www.facebook.com/PMOfficeIndia and Youtube channel. “Over the last two years, our engagement with general public has increased multi-fold due to social media outreach,” the statement said.