Report: Twitter not banned in W.H.

According to a a new report, Twitter is not banned in the White House as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told C-SPAN on Friday.

Mediaite.com printed comments made by White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton that intended to clear up Gibbs’ comment that “for some reason Twitter is blocked on White House computers.”

Here is the exchange between Mediaite and Burton:

Who updates the White House Twitter feed? Is it one person or a few people? (updating from HootSuite suggests multiple editors)

The new media team (basically [Director of New Media] Macon Phillips and [Online Programs Director] Jesse Lee)

Does/do the same person/people update the Barack Obama Twitter feed?

No, that’s DNC.

Where are the offices of that person/those people located?

New media [NB: Those offices are in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.]

If in the White House, is HootSuite enabled on the White House computers?

Yes, for new media.

The White House also tweeted a link to the mediate story:

White House Twitter-block mystery solved: http://bit.ly/gV9Xe

The Deputy Press Secretary got a little candid, saying he’s never known Gibbs to “to exactly break new ground as it relates to technology.”

Burton also told Mediate that “recordkeeping” and “security” has prevented other staffers from using the microblogging site on White House computers.

According to Burton the White House Counsel and the Chief Information Officer are in conversations with the press office to relax the restrictions to Twitter.