President Obama on Reddit. Photo: White House
SAN FRANCISCO — The mood in Reddit’s San Francisco office, right next to Wired, was tense and quiet as a handful of engineers clacked at their keyboards trying to keep the site from buckling under the crush of traffic. Tens of thousands of visitors had descended for the first-ever appearance on the meme-centric link trove by a President of the United States.
Starting around 1:30 p.m. Pacific time today — and announced less than 30 minutes before — Barack Obama answered redditors’ questions about war, taxes, basketball, and beer. In Reddit jargon, the chat was an “AMA” (“Ask Me Anything”) in the “IAmA” subreddit (as in “I am a chef,” “I am a plumber,” “I am a President of the United States”).
The site struggled under the traffic load, with many visitors receiving an error page. But the meme-centric aggregation site’s voting system seems to have kept the trolls mostly buried, and the conversation leaning toward the wonky. As a seasoned presence on social media, the president and his staff seem skilled at avoiding controversy when he interacts with the public online. The Reddit chat was no exception.
Reddit struggled under the traffic load Wednesday as it hosted President Obama.
Pointing to the GOP platform’s plank on internet freedom, a questioner asked Obama where he stood on online openness. He answered, typos and all:
Internet freedom is something I know you all care passionately about; I do too. We will fight hard to make sure that the internet remains the open forum for everybody – from those who are expressing an idea to those to want to start a business. And although their will be occasional disagreements on the details of various legislative proposals, I won’t stray from that principle – and it will be reflected in the platform.
The president cited the Mars Curiosity rover and the death of Neil Armstrong in pledging to invest in the space program, saying the administration was focused on a possible asteroid mission ahead of a manned mission to Mars. He pointed to the JOBS Act as a way his administration has helped startups, and said the Afghanistan troop surge was the most difficult decision he’s made as president. He said his favorite basketball player was Michael Jordan.
When asked the recipe for the White House beer, Obama said: “It will be out soon! I can tell from first-hand experience, it is tasty.”
The Obama campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how the president’s IAmA came together, or why he chose to appear on Reddit. (Full disclosure: Reddit is owned by Conde Nast, which also owns Wired.) But as Obama courts younger voters in an effort to reignite some of the youthful enthusiasm that helped him to victory in 2008, a little viral cachet can’t hurt especially while Mitt Romney seeks an old-media bump from primetime coverage of the GOP convention. Regardless, any remaining pretense to Reddit’s underground status has disappeared beneath the POTUS seal of approval.
Additional reporting by Michael V. Copeland.
