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Twitter reacts to Obama's endorsement of gay marriage
President Obama’s public — though “personal” — endorsement of same-sex marriage on Wednesday didn’t "break" the Internet, but it did put a dent in Twitter.
1.6M gay marriage-related Tweets yesterday doubled previous record, when NY state passed its law. CHART: twitter.com/gov/status/200…
— Twitter Government (@gov) May 10, 2012
To put that in context, Twitter clocked 8,868 tweets-per-second when singer Beyonce announced her pregnancy live and 10,000 per second at the conclusion of the last Super Bowl. But for political news, it's significant. When Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign, mentions of his name jumped to 2,500 tweets per minute.
The buzz apparently paid off. The Obama campaign received $1 million in spontaneous contributions in the first 90 minutes after the news broke Wednesday, according to a BuzzFeed report, likely indicating a high level of awareness about the news.
President Obama’s tweet on Wednesday, which simply quoted Obama from the interview, was re-tweeted more than 56,000 times by 11 a.m. the following day, according to Twitter.
"Same-sex couples should be able to get married." — President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 9, 2012
Twitter analysis by Meltwater Group found that more men than women were tweeting about the topic this week, suggesting that the issue might not hold much sway over the battleground female voters that Obama and Romney are fighting to win in this election.
But at least two women tweeting about the news were high-profile Obama supporters -- Alicia Keys and Eva Longoria.
Honestly, it's about time! This is great news! @BarackObama!! "I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." abcn.ws/JfLXgK
— Alicia Keys (@aliciakeys) May 9, 2012
This is an incredible day in the history of civil rights in America. I applaud President @BarackObamaand all he has … say.ly/UdC3gXy
— Eva Longoria (@EvaLongoria) May 9, 2012
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