Obama smashes Robert Downey Jnr Twitter record with 1m followers in just 5 hours
US president Barack Obama has proven he still commands a great deal of popularity at home and abroad after setting a new Twitter world record for amassing 1m followers, achieving the milestone within just five hours.
The feat was attained despite Obama being six years late to the Twitter party, having previously used the @WhiteHouse and @BarackObama handles managed by staffers, neglecting to open his own account until 16:38 on Monday when he informed the world that he was finally in business under the username @POTUS.
Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
Later that same evening he entered the Guinness World Record Books after passing the seven figure threshold in double quick time, dethroning previous record holder Robert Downey Jnr who pulled off the same trick in just under 24 hours.
Obama promises that all tweets emanating from the account will be his own, posting snaps of his travels and speeches.
Since opening his account Obama has posted four messages and has now amassed 2.26m followers.