Barack Obama is the most popular president of the United States Ever. Or at least he is in the social media world. The references that are made to him in online memes, the amount of video game Easter Eggs (secrets) that he is in and the size of the support he has online outside of the US is simply remarkable.
He has a Facebook page with 26, 814, 096 likes. He has 16,106,318 followers on Twitter. He is the current President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world. He is up for re-election and these are the stats he brings to the table in terms of popularity on the internet and social media. It are these stats which many argue won him the 2008 election, and show the power of social media behind political changes and matters. If social media is able to help someone win an election in one of the most populated countries in the world, then what else can it accomplish.
Well how about putting down a bill that seemed certain to pass? That’s what happened in late January this year, a bill called SOPA that aimed to stop all uses of copyrighted material from appearing anywhere online seemed certain to pass in the US senate…until social media got wind of it, through a 24 hour blackout protest by Wikipedia. Less than 24 hours after that the bill was taken down by its writer and co-sponsors.
This is what social media can accomplish in this day and age. Help to elect a certain presidential candidate and help to quell the passing of a strict law. This is the dawn of the social media age, so image the political ramifications that are yet to come. Perhaps we will all eventual become one nation and everyone will be able to cast their vote on an issue through twitter. Politics and social media, oh the possibilities…
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