Barack Obama has been busy in Asia this weekend, stirring up controversy along the way. Not only did the president bow to Japan’s Emperor Akihito but he also admitted that he’s never used Twitter.
WHAT?!?! He’s never used Twitter?? I’m sorry, this is an outrage. I mean, his Twitter account has nearly 2.7 million followers, many of whom probably voted for him, and now they have to find out that his 418 tweets (so far) weren’t written by him. Are we supposed to believe that he’s busy or something?
This little nugget came out during his trip to China on Monday, according to the New York Times. The president, at a town hall meeting with students in Shanghai, was asked via the Internet, “Should we be able to use Twitter freely?” According to the Times, the president’s response was, “‘Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter,’ he said. ‘My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone.’” Would that imply that the president has never texted, either? I won’t dare speculate.
Of course, his lack of Twitter use didn’t answer the question, so he later said, according to the Times:
“‘I should be honest, as president of the United States, there are times where I wish information didn’t flow so freely because then I wouldn’t have to listen to people criticizing me all the time,’ he said. But, he added, ‘because in the United States, information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.’”
It was an interesting moment in a country where access to the Internet is restricted. What it means for the future of Twitter use in China is left for political pundits and international experts to hash out, but the fact that the president addressed it in such a public setting in China should at least prompt further discussion.
Photo courtesy of Executive Office of the President of the United States, via Wikimedia Commons
