President Obama's dubious Twitter follows remind politicians to be wary of social media

Barack Obama joins a number of other politicians who have faced embarrassment online

The President's social media account followed at least four porn stars (Getty Images)

With its extensive reach and immediacy, social media is a powerful tool for politicians. However, the same advantages can backfire and lead to very public embarrassment.

Now, Barack Obama’s official Twitter account has been found to be following a number of female porn stars.

The President’s personal account @BarackObama – not the account which represents him as President of the United States, @POTUS – was found to be following at least four adult actresses among the many thousands of people it follows.

The @BarackObama account, along with, 653,000 other people, had followed the account of porn star Asa Akira, who wrote on her biography “I have an award winning a**hole”. The Obama account also followed Joanna Angel (who posted a number of pornographic images to her page), Nikki Benz (“Penthouse Pet of the Year”) and Ashley Steel, business media outlet Fast Company reported.

(Twitter (Twitter)

Obama’s Twitter account is run by the staff of Organizing for Action, a grassroots group campaigning for Democratic party policies. The President himself is unlikely to know about the specific details of the page, particularly since it follows around 636,000 people. In addition, a large number of people followed by the @BarackObama page are ‘ghost accounts’, with very few followers and who have never written any tweets.

The gaffe likely occurred as a result of the social media team using an ‘auto-follow’ tool in a bid to increase the account’s online presence.

However, the revelation has drawn fresh attention to how social media can lead to blunders and can be a significant cause of embarrassment to politicians.

The official Twitter account representing the Prime Minister, called @Number10gov, raised eyebrows in 2013, when it was found to be following an escort agency, Carlton’s of London. It was speculated by The Register that the person behind the error intended to follow the Carlton Club, a prestigious private members club for Conservative Party supporters. The account later unfollowed the escort agency.

Labour politician Ed Balls caused waves of excitement on social media when he famously tweeted his own name.

The event cause so much glee to the British public that the 28 April is now considered ‘Ed Balls Day’ and the term often trends on that date annually.

However, there is also a darker side when politicians make errors on social media. In April 2016, Labour MP for Bradford, Naz Shah, was suspended by the party over anti-Semitic Facebook posts which were made in 2014.

A number of other Labour members have been connected to anti-Semitic posts on social media, contributing towards a scandal which has caused huge damage to the party.