Kamala Harris’s husband gets @SecondGentleman Twitter account

Douglas Emhoff will be able to tweet from @SecondGentleman Twitter handle

US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff take a selfie. Photo: AFP

The husband of US vice president-elect Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, will soon be able to tweet under an official handle given to him by Twitter, @SecondGentleman, a play on the title of first lady given to the spouse of the president of the United States.

Ms Harris, the first woman elected to serve as US vice president, will get the official handle of @VP.

Mr Emhoff's new handle was announced in a statement from Twitter about how the current official government accounts for the Trump administration would be archived and transferred once president-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.

The company, with more than 330 million active users, said it would enable users to watch the inauguration ceremony on a US elections hub on the Twitter platform.

“Twitter will transfer the institutional accounts to the Biden administration to assume ownership, along with a new account, @SecondGentleman,” the company said.

“@Transition46 will become @WhiteHouse, @PresElectBiden will become @POTUS, @SenKamalaHarris will become @VP, @FLOTUSBiden will become @FLOTUS, and @PressSecPsaki will become @PressSec. The Tweets, account history, and followers will transition between these accounts,” it said.

Mr Emhoff, like Ms Harris and Mr Biden, is already on Twitter, but will have the option of using his official Twitter handle as well.

President Donald Trump, before he was permanently removed from Twitter after being accused of inciting an insurrection in January, used the @POTUS account occasionally alongside his personal account, @RealDonaldTrump.

Twitter said followers on Mr Trump’s official account would not be automatically transferred once it is given to Mr Biden.

“People on Twitter who previously followed institutional White House Twitter accounts, or who currently follow relevant Biden or Harris Twitter accounts, will receive in-app alerts and other prompts that will notify them about the archival process, as well as give them the option to follow the new administration’s Twitter accounts,” it said.

Mr Emhoff has more than 769,000 followers on his personal Twitter account, @DouglasEmhoff.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to California as a teenager, where he later became an entertainment lawyer.

Mr Emhoff works at DLA Piper, an international law firm with offices in the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

America's first second gentleman will also be the first Jewish spouse of a vice president of the United States.

Twitter and Facebook became the focus of criticism during Mr Trump's administration, accused of misusing personal data for advertising purposes, allowing fake accounts to flourish and becoming havens for fake news.

Both companies have tightened restrictions and enforcement in recent years, however, most recently by banning Mr Trump's accounts after violence attributed to his tweets and Facebook posts.