Obama gets his own @POTUS account, joins Twitter age

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is embracing short-form communication. Twitter has a new (at)POTUS account.

For years, White House officials have used Twitter to communicate White House policy and occasional personal observations.

But Obama himself stayed out of the social media fray.

No longer.

With a frugal 91-character message -- 49 short of maximum permitted -- Obama on Monday declared: "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account."

The White House says the tweets on that account will come exclusively from the president.

The move is the latest by a White House particularly attuned to social media and new technology. But Twitter, with its ability to be anonymously interactive, is a new forum for the president, even one who carries his own Blackberry.

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