140Char

Although most people will have assumed that the @BarackObama account was staffed by members of his team and White House staff, it was easy to hope that a Blackberry-addicted new President might occasionally sneak a tweet in – especially given the account is always in the first-person, and given messages such as ‘Humbled’ on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

But it turns out almost 2.7 million people are following the President’s team rather than the man himself, after he spoke in a Q&A session in Shanghai which was streamed on the internet. In it, he fielded a question about Twitter. His answer?

“I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access.”

It’s a pity this hasn’t been made clear on the account, or that he hasn’t been able to at least check in a couple of times to see what the fuss is about.

Interestingly, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also claimed in July (incorrectly as it turned out), that Twitter was blocked on official White House computers.

It seems that social media hasn’t been quite as pervasive in the Obama administration as you might have assumed.

HT to Breaking News Online, Read Write Web and Techcrunch.

As with the earthquakes in the UK and China, the first I heard about the earthquake today in America was on Twitter. Whereas most news sources will be busy subbing their efforts, people are updating Twitter whilst events are going on around them.
Great for anyone who wants to find out about the news as it happens – worrying for the people who could end up in danger because they’re glued to their PC/mobile instead of finding a doorway!