Twitter, the “social network” that the U.S. government prefers

According to an EFE report, if you want to know what Barack Obama is doing right now, you can turn on the TV or do a web search, but there’s another place where you will be able to keep a closer tab on the U.S. President: Twitter, the micro-blogging service that he –as well as hundreds of personalities from all over the world– is using.Through the website the White House has opened in this social network, collaborators post messages with no more than 140 characters to keep the rest of the world informed about what the President and his administration are up to these days.The U.S. government boasts a not inconsiderable number of almost 400.000 followers.In line with his policy of having a more open public administration and fostering the use of new technologies, Obama has become an active user of social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and other state agencies are following suit.Since the White House joined Twitter early last May, around 30 of those agencies have signed up with Facebook, while over 25 official U.S. bodies have their own channel in the video network YouTube.For instance, among President Obama’s messages this weekend was one about the reaction to Iran protests: "We urge the Iranian government to stop all violent and unfair actions against its own people"."I believe we will witness a huge upturn in the use by the government of these social networks online,” said Bev Godwin, director of Online Resources & Interagency Development at the White House.

Translated by: Walter Lipman