Why the President of the US Should Not Be Allowed to Use a Personal Twitter Account

Social media has taken over most aspects of our day to day to day lives. Initially used as a recreational tool for the young generation, today the platform has become the most reliable and conventional means of communication. Most people have opted to use the platform to relay information from one point to another. Apart from contact, social media has also been utilized in other sectors such as business in advertising, a channel for awareness creation by educators and activists and even in politics. (Zamora-Medina, et al. 2014) Most politicians and other people holding offices in government have decided to use various platforms available to increase their outreach to their followers. These individuals can make their intentions known to their followers in a fast, easy and reliable way where the intended audience can also give their feedback and opinion.

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One social media platform that the leaders have opted to use for their communication purposes is Twitter. The main reason for choosing this platform is the uniqueness it possesses. Unlike other sites, Twitter is a more informative platform that is more focused on informational news dissemination compared to other platforms that are more life and style oriented. With Twitter, one easily gets to know about what is happening in the world around them by merely finding what is trending depending on their location. (Snead, 2013) Such availability of up to date information has put Twitter on the forefront of news and information acquisition to the users thus prompting leaders to use the channel in their public outreach endeavors.

However, despite the platform being a reliable source of up to date information, certain shortcomings are associated with the channel that makes it not a so reliable communication channel especially for use by leaders occupying significant governance and leadership offices such as the president's office. The president of the United States, in particular, should not be allowed to use a personal Twitter account given some of the controversial posts that he makes from time to time on his account. Although some people may not take the deplorable comments seriously, the posts could be mitigators of division and disruption of the cohesion between the president's supporters and those aligned against him. (Murthy, 2011) Given the power that social media yields today, a mere rant on Twitter could end up causing massive disagreements among the people whose results could be detrimental.

Another reason as to why the president of the U.S should not be allowed to use a personal twitter account is the rampant case of impersonation that happens on social media platform twitter included. People may steal the identity of others with malicious intentions such as spreading false information that incites the recipients. Such information may have detrimental effects before it's authenticity is certified. Sometimes back my mother was the victim of a post in a fake Trump's account that had controversial information saying, "Africans are stupid, and their stupidity will always be the vice weighing them down until they learn to use their brains and stop fighting like caged animals, poverty will always be upon them" after reading the post my mother was so disappointed and asked, " what kind of a leader from a developed country would make such comments about a continent that is on the grip of endless struggles" this is just a single instance of the effects that a President's account could have.

Conclusion

To help curb such vices and occurrences, it should be made clear to the public that the POTUS does not have a personal Twitter account and therefore any information claimed to be from the president could be automatically be dismissed for lack of authenticity.

Works cited

Zamora-Medina, Rocio, and Cristina Zurutuza-Munoz. "Campaigning on Twitter: Towards the "personal style" campaign to activate the political engagement during the 2011 Spanish general elections." (2014).

Snead, John T. "Social media use in the US Executive branch." Government Information Quarterly 30.1 (2013): 56-63.

Murthy, Dhiraj. "Twitter: Microphone for the masses?" Media, culture & society 33.5 (2011): 779-789.