President Barack Obama has had his Twitter account less than a week, and already he has been bombarded with hateful and racist tweets , according to the New York Times .
One tweet came with a picture of a monkey and another one came with the president’s neck in a noose with his eyes closed with him appearing to be dead. The word HOPE, that was on his campaign poster, was replaced with the word ROPE. Another tweet called him a “Black Monkey.” Another person tweeted, “Get back in your cage, monkey.”
The White House has not responded to what it plans to do about the racist and hateful tweets the president is receiving.
“The president was able to block an account himself, according to the Huffington Post .”
In the hours following @POTUS being launched, the account gained more than a million followers. One of those followers was @MeninistTweet account that President Obama wants to have nothing to do with. The account claims to be a parody of men’s rights activists, but the posts are against women. The account bills itself as a parody, but it provides sexist jokes and constant criticisms of women.
“Whether or not the account is actually a parody, Obama doesn’t want anything to do with it; therefore, he has blocked @MeninistTweet from @POTUS. Because @MeninistTweet has been blocked, it cannot follow @POTUS, nor can it see any @POTUS’ tweets.”
The White House says @POTUS is an account where the president can engage directly with the American people. It took him six years to get his Twitter account , and it would be a shame if he decides to deactivate it because of the myriads of undesirable tweets that are coming in at a rapid pace. It is very unfortunate that people are using the president’s Twitter account to send him hateful and racist tweets and demeaning pictures.
According to Twitter, blocking is a function that you, President Obama, or anyone else can use to control who to interact with on Twitter. When a Twitter account is blocked, that account will not be able to follow you or view your tweets. Blocked accounts cannot send direct messages to you, tag you, or view anything you tweet.
It would be a shame if President Obama decides to deactivate his Twitter account, but it would be no surprise if he did. Surely, he can’t spend a considerable amount of time blocking haters.
[Image via Getty Images]