Will Obama's BlackBerry be banned from the Whitehouse?

It looks like the most computer-literate US President of recent times will have his electronic activities curtailed a little once he enters the Whitehouse. The New York Times is reporting that there are a number of laws that will prevent Barack Obama using, among other things, his much-loved BlackBerry, once he’s inaugurated in January 2009.

The President-elect has made no secret of his love for mobile email and his BlackBerry reportedly never leaves his side. He apparently used his BlackBerry for much his communication with his aides during his election campaign, and even used it to send a “How about that?” message to a friend when his election victory was announced on the night of 4th November.

Alas, the 1978 Presidential Records Act means that all presidential correspondence must be in the official record and ultimately available to the public – which means personal emails are no longer anything of the sort. In fact George W Bush sent a farewell message from his old G94B@aol.com email address just before he was sworn into office, citing privacy concerns for his abandonment of personal electronic communication. The current US administration seems to have found ways around this, though.

So, will Barack Obama really be forced to scale down his gadgets and other online activities once he enters the oval office? Well, the fact that he will be the first US President to make his weekly addresses available on YouTube suggests that technology will still play a big part of his term of office, but his Twitter account seems to have gone a bit quiet since 5th November, so we’ll just have to wait and see…

[NY Times]