As Obama wins second term Twitter sets a new record – 327k tweets per minute

7 Nov 2012

US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle

As Barack Obama was re-elected president of the United States after a hard-fought election campaign, a new record was set on Twitter with more than 327,000 tweets a minute.

This means the Obama election victory has effectively tripled the previous record of 116,000 tweets per minute during the Spice Girls reunion concert at the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

According to Twitter Government, Twitter’s politics and government team, there were more than 100m votes cast and some 31.7m tweets on election day.

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Overnight it was confirmed that President Barack Obama will return to the White House for a further four years with 281 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 201 electoral votes.

In an emotional speech, Obama told supporters: “We are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.” He added that for the US, “the best is yet to come.”

Obama stressed he believed in a generous and compassionate America that is tolerant and “open to the dreams of an immigrant’s daughter … to the young boy on the south side of Chicago who sees a life beyond the street corner”.

Obama said the US economy is recovering and a decade of war is ending.

“Whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you and you’ve made me a better president. I return to the White House more determined and inspired than ever.”

A tweet by Obama simply stating “four more years”, with a picture of him embracing his wife Michelle, became his most retweeted post ever, attracting 524,449 retweets and 177,884 favourites.

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John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com