Despite talk of a special relationship between the two leaders, it would seem that their friendship does not extend to the Twittersphere.
The British media have made a huge play of the Twitter relationship, or lack of one, between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Just last week Cameron felt the need to brag of how President Obama affectionately refers to him as “bro,” and his media critics have taken great joy in pointing out that they might not be so close after all.
The wrong David Cameron
President Obama is following a man called David Cameron, but it turns out that he is a science-fiction fan from Oregon who tweets about Star Trek and Back to the Future. Online tool DoesFollow reveals that while the U.S. President is following @DavidCameron, his British counterpart uses the account @David_Cameron.
The Oregon-based David Cameron has received a lot more attention since his namesake joined Twitter back in 2012, but he seems unfazed. He even tweeted: “I am NOT the prime minister. I am a dude from America, who is more awesome than the prime minister.”
It should have been obvious enough to President Obama’s social media team that they had followed the wrong man, considering that another tweet, from January 8, read: “I HAVE TWO F****** GLASSES OF WINE AND SUDDENLY I HAVE A CASE OF THE HICCUPS THAT IS SO BAD I WILL PROBABLY PULL A MUSCLE.”
Mistaken identity
Both the use of capital letters and the use of foul language are decidedly un-British, let alone prime ministerial, and we haven’t even got to talking about the Back to the Future Part II profile picture.
It would be very naive to blame President Obama himself for the faux-pas, but it turns out that his team no longer runs the account either. It has been taken over by campaigners for the Organizing for Action group, according to thenextweb.com.
It must be said that President Obama is not the one to have followed the wrong David Cameron. In between tweeting about his daily life or science fiction, Oregon’s version sometimes takes the time to respond to other Twitter users berating him on U.K. government policy.
