Obama: "I Have Never Used Twitter"
Barack Obama spoke to a group of Chinese students tonight at a town hall in Shanghai. The meeting was streamed live, worldwide on the Whitehouse website and on the Whitehouse's Facebook page. He was asked a limited number of questions by the audience and one was about Twitter, which has been blocked in China since July.
Got that? The President went to China, was asked about Twitter and it was streamed live on his Facebook page. How the world has changed.
Obama was asked by a student, "Do you know about the great firewall and should we be able to use Twitter?" His reply: "I have never used Twitter but I'm an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access." (via Breaking News Online)
He's never used Twitter! Shocking, given that his account with 2.6 million followers has even been "verified" by Twitter headquarters! (Update: As a reader points out in comments below, the Twitter website says that verification is given to accounts representing organizations and public figures, but doesn't verify who's actually Tweeting the Twittle.)
Of course Obama needn't use Twitter or Facebook at all, much less effectively, so long as he hires people who are capable of making effective use of cutting-edge communication technologies in his Administration's name. Clearly, he can. It might not hurt to add a staffer's initials to the messages that are not paraphrases of any official statement, though. That's what Britney Spears does with her Twitter account.
Twitter is Important
Meanwhile, is this not a changed international communication landscape? In these frictionless self-publishing tools, with real-time worldwide message delivery and network effects in listening, distribution and learning - there is something so powerful that it's a matter of international diplomacy.
Whitehouse Press Secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at Twitter this summer and told CNN the site was blocked on Whitehouse computers, something that subsequent reports apparently disproved but interesting none the less.
It's no laughing matter, though. The impact of Twitter-like services really is like, in type if clearly not intensity, the changes the world saw with the advent of the telephone and the railroad. CNN and live cable coverage of Tiananmen square, Twittering (or not) from China: these fit into the same category of disruptive tools for international communication.
Maybe you should try it sometime, Mr. Obama. And while you're at it, you should ask someone to brief you on the movement for distributed social networking standards. A speaking gig in China would have been a great opportunity to sing the praises of decentralized, standards-based, interoperable, free-market competition in communication technologies. That's the next part of the Twitter story.
If you'd like to join the ReadWriteWeb team in discussing matters of global importance (or not) on Twitter, you can find us here.
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Maybe the POTUS shouldn't have lied that he did use twitter.
Maybe not calling him out is just as bad as the Righties still defending Bush after 8 years.
Uh, I dunno about that, Ed. When did he say he did use Twitter? And besides, it's Twitter - not waterboarding.
i am upset. Verified accounts - lies....
lies
I’d bet that 90% of politicians do not actually send their own tweetsso this isn’t really a surprise.
Who actually thinks that Sen. John McCain (Obama’s presidential opponent in 2008 and another popular Twitter user) has himself sent a tweet?
A politician personally tweeting is the exception, not the norm.
No.. Twitter says that a verified account can be the person or authorized representatives:
Quote from Twitter's website:
"With this feature, you can easily see which accounts we know are 'real' and authentic. That means we've been in contact with the person or entity the account is representing and verified that it is approved. (This does not mean we have verified who, exactly, is writing the tweets.)"
(http://twitter.com/help/verified)
Comparing with Chinese politicians, This will lie will NOT be a lie, It's so common, nothing surprised!!!
There are very strict rules that regulate the mingling of official government accounts with campaign and with personal accounts. @BarackObama is the account of the Obama political campaign. @WhiteHouse is the account of the Whitehouse. Apparently there is no actual personal Twitter account for Barack Obama…
The Verified account his for the political campaign account.
And all those people voted for him because they thought he was on Twitter. I bet they are gutted.
He should be helping small businesses.
Please. Obama's got no time to Twitter. He's too busy securing his right to perform warrantless wiretaps with his beloved Patriot Act and sending troops to bomb innocent civilians in the Middle East and giving money to the banking lobby to bother talking to his constituents on the Internet. He'll talk directly to Oprah and George Clooney, but not the American peole- that's beneath him.
Ah, here in China, twitter is much more critical for netizens than you guys think. This twitter-and-gfw question is not common in this communist nation. The control gets more tightening, and it seems no one can lift the censorship yet.
In Australia Kevin Rudd's (the Prime Minister) twitter account is a mix of his own tweets and those that are written by his staff. But everytime that happens, the hash tag #KevinPM Team is used. I don't see why all politicians can't have a similar system.
Watch all the retarded Obama-hating wingnuts jump on this. Oh it's so funny when people try to repeat everything they hear on Fox News. "Obama put Russian czars in the White House, and now wants Americans to use Chinese Twatter!"
I realize now that it was pretty unrealistic of me to expect that he really was the one tweeting. But then, he could have at least said that someone on his team was doing the tweeting for him, as this article is silent on whether he knew he had a Twitter account.
In any case, props to him for being honest. It's so refreshing.
Isn´t @timberners_lee worthy of verified status?
I think everybody knows he never used the @barackobama twitter, and everything is written in there was not him.
If he never used THAT twitter is one thing, but he NEVER USED THE Twitter, is a very sad thing.
that means he dont really know how it works, he dont have that experience to say that twitter is good or not.
anngg...'twas so lame of me to think that the real Obama & the Dalai Lama are my real followers! Nonetheless, I should have been prepped that I was following a dummy or something! #biggestcrockofthecentury (^_~)
Comparing President Obamas Twittering format to that of silly, Britnet Spears makes you sound like an idiot! Perhaps a more reality based example of Twitter signing protocol might have been a better choice. Ranking on Pres. Obama because he personally doesn't Tweet sounds maybe you don't have enough to do with your time. I enjoy your blog but this could have been an interesting article but it turns out its just silly.
Did anybody really think it was Obama hitting on the keyboard...?
He is the president!He doesn't have time to go out and tweet what he is doing,because what he is doing is running the country!!!
I didn't really think that Obama was hitting on the keyboard himself - at least not all the time. But I'm kinda shocked that he has never used it.
Duh.
Who cares? Fix the country and then Twitter about it later. Much, much later. Do we care if the President can Twitter, code a clean .css file OR reform our health care system and put us on a road to cleaner energy...hmmm, I wonder.
"shocked he never used it..."? Lordy, your reality is distorted.
come on guys, stop looking like fools jumping on any nascent trend that you think will give you the edge, like this is the printing press or some shit oh so long ago
twitter is totally useless in nearly 99% of situations, and really is pretty juvenile anyway.
inb4 all that stupid shit you guys say to defend yourself but really doesnt make any sense when juxtaposed against a decent amount of logic and knowledge
Who Care's If he twitter's let the man do his damn job and if someone is actually acting as President Obama and using his name as way to gain point's than by all mean's let them do it lol
oh NOOOO!
you mean the Barak Obama that accepted my invitation on LinkedIn was not the real one??
please, please, please!
Obama is not writing his Tweets! No more than any other CEO of any brand on Twitter is! comparing Obama and Britney Spears.. BS! I guess her last Tweet was.. "ops, shaved my head again!"
I feel really sorry for the 30% who believed Obama tweets himself, they really have a distorted vision of the reality.
@MK: Obama's job is not to make a speech on "decentralized, standards-based, interoperable, free-market competition in communication technologies" or more generally on what technology to use and how to use it, but to make sure the technology is available to everyone without limitations! He correctly said: "I'm an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access" which is way ahead of any speech on the tools themselves!
Or should he held a meeting of the role of multi-platform logistic centers for pet-food distribution?
Important people don't tweet, mind you, it's a waste of time.
Expert exchange is a critical part of twitter, but who's he going to share links with, Steven Harper? What is he going to share on twitter in the first place? "The 9 Best Ways to Save the Country that are not Bailout."
If you are not using twitter to gain knowledge and information, let alone the question of whether it's the best way to do so or not, you're essentially wasting time.
It's not difficult to conclude that President Obama has much more pressing duties than to regularly update his Twitter status. That being said, however, I'm stunned to hear that he has never used the service at all. With a Twitter account under his name that has millions of followers, he owes it to the community to write a Tweet every once in a while.
I'm not advocating that the President shirk other responsibilities to spend more time on Twitter, but rather imploring him to take greater ownership over "his words" on Twitter. For him to admit to never having Tweeted is surprising. It doesn't take much time or effort to send a Tweet once a month.
If you read the Prez's tweets back during the campaign, it was pretty obvious they were campaign updates by staff, not his personal observations.
Isn't Mr. Obama the one person who can most justifiably say "I don't have time to tweet"? Wouldn't The Right jump all over it (moreso) if he WAS telling us what he had for breakfast?
Obama's a smart man. He knows when you dip your toe in social media waters, you gotta commit whole hog to the time it takes. If he doesn't have time to commit because he's off getting basic human rights in the form of health care for his people, you need to cut the guy some slack.
"I have never used Twitter"
was Obama saying the great firewall
denying access to Twitter was no hardship.
And that the great firewall restrictions are trivial.
Just another Obama oriental bow.
Posted by: rainmaker.myopenid.com
|
November 16, 2009 11:26 AM
I heard he liked to use Twitter while on the back porch of the White House having a smoke.
People actually thought he did his own Tweeting? Humans, we are born naturally gullible. I wonder how many of the 700k+ people his account followed thought that he might actually reading their Tweets.
Hey might not know how to use twitter, but he sure knows how to screw the american people. http://bit.ly/39oJo
I must edit my old post about this.
So yeah...um he's the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and I'm OK knowing that he hasn't used Twitter. Why you ask? Well, the dude is a little busy fixing the country at the moment...give it up.
The update to the error is wrong. As Ev stated in an answer to question on Twitter, a "verified" account is only for accounts that may have clones or copycats pretending to be that person. It has nothing to do with who controls the account behind the scenes.
http://twitter.com/ev/status/5609939641
I think the president has more important things to do than Twitter!
I also had a look at Twitter, not very keen on it! I wonder how it actually spread to be so popular!!!
Is this the Dems' new "I didn't inhale"?
Clearly a lot of people posting comments here believe that verified accounts are actually read and tweeted from by the celebrity or public figure who's name it's in.
Wow, were you guys born yesterday?
I support the President, however, it is a total lie to have a twitter account and never use twitter. Will got it right: (In Australia Kevin Rudd's (the Prime Minister) twitter account is a mix of his own tweets and those that are written by his staff. But everytime that happens, the hash tag #KevinPM Team is used. I don't see why all politicians can't have a similar system. Posted by: Will | November 16, 2009 1:00 AM)
i think obama take a good decision about the all amrican citizen now they talk with obama on twitter.....
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2222539
I honestly hope the president isn't fooling around on Twitter like a 16-year-old girl.
I like to think that the most busy and powerful man on the world today is not doing the same thing my 14 yr old daughter does with her time, so glad he isnt doing it.
Hamilton Beach Juicer
I’m under the impression that Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites produce a warning page on all computers using a government network. I believe these sites used to be completely blocked and they might still be from the White House for security reasons, but I don’t think any government employee can social network unless public outreach is part of their job.
Anyway, he's already lost his Verification Account ...
Was clear that Barack doesnt really tweets, president uses time for more effective things.. Hehe
obama's too busy trying to destroy the country to use twitter.
Was clear that Barack doesnt really tweets, president uses time for more effective things.. Hehe
Obama's too busy trying to undo the damage left by George Bush.
He is the president!He doesn't have time to go out and tweet what he is doing,because what he is doing is running the country!!!
im suprised the student was allowed to say that comment with no repurcussions!? and yeah i agree of course he doesnt tweet
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