Former President Barack Obama appeared to throw subtle shade at President Donald Trump for having fewer Twitter followers than himself during a forum in India on Friday.
In a conversation with journalist Karan Thapar at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, Obama boasted on stage about having “100 million Twitter followers”.
“I actually have more than other people who use it more often,” he added, prompting laughter from the audience who interpreted it as a ding against Trump. (For the record, Obama actually has 97.4 million followers. Trump has 43.8 million).
“I think it’s important to be mindful about both the power of these tools and also its limits and to understand it can be used for both good or for ill,” Obama added, during a more general discussion on technology.
Obama later issued this advice for people using social media:
“Don’t say the first thing that pops into your head, just have a little bit of an edit function, that’s wise for life generally. You see people getting in all kinds of trouble because they sent out some tweet and then they’re trying to erase it afterwards but somebody’s screenshot it and they’re getting embarrassed.”
“Think before you speak, think before you tweet, same principle,” he added.
The full interview is below, with Obama’s Twitter comments at the 34:30 mark.