Obama’s Reddit AMA violates record, Ohanian invites Romney
(CBS News) President Barack Obama answered questions from the link-sharing community Reddit on Wednesday. During a 30-minute question-and-answer session commonly referred to as an AMA – which stands for “ask me anything” – the President addressed Citizens United, the space program and Internet freedom.
Reddit is a link-sharing community that has a sub-section called “IAmA,” which permits anyone to begin a thread for people to ask unfiltered questions. Within 15-minutes, the thread – titled “I am Barack Obama, President of the United States — AMA” – had already received 1,333 comments. The number of comments is presently at 22,941.
“It was a good day!” Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told CBS News in an email. “Over 200,000 people on site hitting during the interview (mashing reload to keep eyeing updates) is a fresh high.” Reddit typically sees about 100,000 people on the site at a time.
Those familiar with Reddit may not be astonished at the turnout. While the site has a plain user interface and sultry community, it is anything but a puny forum.
Reddit general manager Eric Martin told CBS News over the phone that the site passed three billion monthly page views in July. And Obama’s AMA alone is presently at Three.8 million page views.
When asked how Reddit wooed the President to do an AMA, Ohanian told the blog AllThingsD:
“There’s not a lot to it. I’ve gotten to know fairly a few folks in the WH & Obama campaign team over the years and it was always something I brought up when I got the chance. There are fairly a few redditors at one thousand six hundred Pennsylvania Ave and at the campaign HQ — given the prominence of reddit, it’s an effortless sell.”
Politicians have hosted AMAs in the past, including Rep. Ron Paul and former Rep. Anthony Weiner, but Obama is the most prominent host of an AMA session yet.
When asked if Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would be asked to host an AMA, Ohanian told CBS News, “I’d been calmly working to encourage the Romney team to do one, but I went ahead and invited him publicly.” In a Bloomberg report, Ohanian said that it was Romney’s turn to face the Internet.
“He came out so strongly against SOPA during that CNN Republican candidate debate that it’s clear he too wants Internet freedom for Americans,” Ohanian told Bloomberg, referring to the Stop Online Piracy Act. Reddit played a central role in the online protests. It led to an Internet blackout in January, where websites went dark in protest of twin bills SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). “What better way to showcase it then to do a Reddit interview with the Internet public?”
There are about two months left until election day. If Romney does an AMA, it’s likely that Ohanian will hint at an upcoming question-and-answer session. Leading up to Obama’s AMA, Ohanian taunted on Twitter, “There’s a indeed special AMA coming later today.”
© two thousand twelve CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Go after @chendangak
No comments