Have you always wanted to say something to President Obama? For those of you who couldn’t afford the ticket to Washington DC or a stamp to mail a letter, you are in luck. It appears that the POTUS is now on Facebook Messenger. Yes, the same Facebook Messenger that you use to message dear Aunt Clara in Kansas can now put you in contact with the leader of the free world.
The White House published a blog post on Wednesday saying that President Obama will now add Facebook messages to the loads of digital and physical mail that he receives on a daily basis. According to the White House, the President reads 10 letters or messages from American citizens every night. “The White House’s Messenger bot, a first of its kind for any government the world over, will make it as easy as messaging your closest friends,” explained Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldman in a White House blog post.
Throughout his Presidency, Obama has been more active on social media than any President before him. Sure, that may be due in part to the rise in technology and not necessarily attributed to Mr. Obama himself. However that has given average citizens the opportunity to make their voice heard to the most powerful person in the country.
In order to send a message to the President, users will need to navigate to the White House Facebook page and click message. You can also access this through the stand alone mobile app by searching for “White House” as you would search for any average person. The user is then taken to the familiar looking Facebook messaging screen.
However, with this new way to contact the President there is a catch. You don’t actually send messages to the POTUS himself; you send messages to a messaging bot that relays the messages to the President. In addition to that, the bot will require you to provide some personal information. That personal information includes things such as, your name, email address and physical address. Those who live in fear of men in suits rolling up to their house in black SUV’s need not apply.