clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Welcome to Facebook, Mr. President

The president gets increasingly social.

White House

The president of the United States has joined the rest of the country on Facebook — the first time a sitting president has done so.

President Obama today created a Facebook page, where he invited others on the social network to engage in “real conversations about the important issues facing our country” — so, keep those invitations to play Scrabble to yourself. (You’ll be able to “Like” the president’s personal profile, but not send a friend request.)

The nation’s 44th president invited Facebook users to accompany him via video on a walk in his backyard, something Obama said he does at the end of every day before he heads to dinner. The clip provided an opportunity for him to talk about the environment and climate change.

“We’ve got to preserve this beautiful planet of ours for our kids and grandkids,” Obama writes. “And that means taking serious steps to address climate change once and for all. Now, we’ve made a lot of progress to cut carbon pollution here at home, and we’re leading the world to take action as well. But we’ve got to do more. In a few weeks, I’m heading to Paris to meet with world leaders about a global agreement to meet this challenge.”

The welcome video, posted shortly after noon ET on Monday, has already garnered more than 400,000 views, according to a Facebook spokesman. You can watch it here:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.