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People Are Actually Dumb Enough to @Mention Obama When Threatening to Kill Him on Twitter

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As you may know, President Obama opened up a Twitter account earlier this week. What? You’ve been following Obama on Twitter for years? Well, not really. You’ve been following his campaign non-profit and possibly the White House. More on that here.

So, now that the President has an official account that’s really, actually, seriously him tweeting, this is happening:

You know what happens to people who threaten to kill the President on Twitter? Well, sometimes nothing – there are a lot of tweets out there. But sometimes you get sent to prison. Sometimes.

Here’s a fun fact, however. The White House is archiving every single one of those tweets. Literally. Any tweet that even @-mentions the @POTUS account is going in the archive.

This is taken directly from the White House’s digital privacy primer:

On Twitter, the White House automatically archives “tweets” from official White House accounts, “direct messages” sent to or from official White House accounts, and “mentions” (tweets from other users to official White House accounts; these tweets contain an @ and the username of an official White House account (e.g., @WhiteHouse). The White House also automatically archives any status that official accounts have “favorited.”

Really. This is now in the national archives too:

Reading tweets directed @POTUS is an amazing, frustrating, and ultimately comical experience. God Bless America.

Image via White House, Twitter