Last week in this CSPAN interview, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs mentioned that “for some reason Twitter is blocked on White House computers”. He also said that people already know enough about what he’s doing from seeing him on camera. Gibbs doesn’t seem to realise there’s quite a bit more that can be done with Twitter than just telling people what he is doing.
This is a little strange considering the White House does show it values Twitter by maintaining two official Twitter accounts, @BarackObama and @Whitehouse. These accounts have a combined following of over 2.5 million. He also seems to have forgotten that Obama’s engagement with new media during his campaign for the White House helped him win the election. I would’ve thought they’d be interested in expanding on this during their administration by allowing some more officials to use Twitter from within.
Presumably the White House Twitter ban is for security reasons. Perhaps banning Twitter is just easier than developing and implementing social media guidelines. After all, people don’t always follow guidelines. The ban makes me wonder if anyone uses Twitter from mobile devices from inside the White House.
Should tweeting be allowed from inside governments, or is it the real-time nature of Twitter too much of a security risk?
