Social Media Digest: Obama’s Reddit AMA, Twitter Controversy and Facebook’s Facelift

1. Twitter has been up in arms over controversial tweets again, this time thanks to MP George Galloway. Following his recent disastrous comments on rape, Galloway has stuck his foot in his mouth once again, tweeting ‘you badly need medical help son. Will decent Rangers fans please substitute this windae-licker’ during a conversation on Sunday. Twitter users were quick to point out the disrespectful slur, and disability charity Mencap has called for an apology from the MP.

2. A Canadian car dealership is giving customers the chance to tweet their way to a brand new Audi in a ‘Tweet Race’. Starting from

Monday, entrants can sign up for a new Twitter account or sign in with an existing one – the first ten accounts to reach 2,500 followers will each receive a key, and one key will open a new Audi A4. Pfaff Automotive, the dealership running the competition, will be tracking the tweet race on their website.

3. Facebook has (finally!) released an update of its iOS app which, according to most accounts, is two times faster than the previous version. The new app, built on Objective-C instead of HTML5, features a ‘New Stories’ dropdown when new items are posted allowing users to quickly jump to the top of the page plus updated Messages and Photos functionality. We’ve noticed that it’s a lot faster and definitely more slick – what do you think?

4. Inspired by seeing the same cliché wedding photos on Facebook over and over, photographer Beatrice de Guigne has re-enacted the images with the most famous couple in the world – Barbie and Ken. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter and especially Pinterest, you’ll have seen these shots time and time again, but hopefully most bride and grooms are more animated than these two!

5. If we didn’t know already, we do now: President Obama rules the internet. The US President took part in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) this week and fielded dozens of questions and posted photographs on the site. Obama is the first political figure to engage audiences in such a way and although the AMA was unscheduled and unannounced, more than 1.8 million people subscribed to the thread. Way to go, Obama!