Obama tweets, and a million follow within five hours

Washington

PRESIDENT Barack Obama sent his first tweet from his very own account on Twitter on Monday, quickly amassing a million followers in five hours, the latest of many White House efforts to amplify his message with social media. "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account," Mr Obama tweeted from his verified @POTUS account.

A Twitter spokesman could not immediately confirm whether Mr Obama had set a record. According to Guinness World Records, the fastest pace to a million followers was set by actor Robert Downey Jr in 23 hours and 22 minutes in April 2014.