President Obama Invites Facebook Users For A Chat

Most people would think that the President of the United States would be too busy for things like Facebook chats, but those people would be wrong. In an attempt to build a better dialogue between the commander-in-chief and the people he is meant to serve, the White House is opening communications via Facebook Messenger.

Facebook users can send the POTUS a private message via the White House’s official account, Huffington Post reports. Once Messenger has been initiated, users will need to hit the “Let’s go!” button and be met with a chat bot that will ask them if they are ready. The users will then be able to send a message that could be one of the 10 that the president will read on a daily basis. White House chief digital officer Jason Goldman notes that with technology having reached its current level, it’s a lot easier to talk to constituents than before.

“Face-to-face time is a little harder to come by these days, but technology makes it possible for anyone with an internet connection to send a message to the President and his Administration,” Goldman said.

Andrea Peterson over at The Washington Post tried sending a message via the chat bot and wrote that the whole exercise lasted about 10 minutes, from initiating contact with the bot to actually sending her question. This is significantly longer than simply posting a comment on the White House Facebook page or sending an email, but those options don’t pose the benefit of potentially being read by President Obama, himself.

As for the 10-message limit, it seems Obama has actually been following this rule since 2009. The Office of Correspondence would sift through thousands of letters sent to the President on a daily basis and then give him the 10 that he could read. Perhaps more than any other administration, Obama has shown the most enthusiasm in keeping in touch with Americans via Reddit, Twitter, and Snapchat.