Obama holds 30-minute Q&A session with Reddit members

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama has spent 30 minutes answering questions from members of social news site Reddit, according to BBC News.

Obama's appearance was a surprise and during the Q&A session he answered 10 questions from the tens of thousands submitted.

He responded to queries about political financing, troops in Afghanistan and net legislation.The chat proved so popular with Redditors, it made the whole site slow to respond.

Many commentators said Obama's appearance was a coup for Reddit and the chat would help its march towards mainstream influence alongside other social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Barack Obama has a long history of using social media both to support his candidacy before being elected and while serving as president. In July 2011 he held a "town hall" meeting via Twitter, in which he answered vetted questions submitted via the micro-blogging site.

The timing of the Reddit chat was seen to be significant as it coincided with the U.S. Republican Party convention. This meant chatter on Twitter about issues at the convention was jostling for attention with tweets about Obama's Reddit chat.

Despite the president not answering questions about drug legalization and other controversial subjects, the response by Redditors to his appearance was largely positive.