THE TWITTER COUP Part 4
The Marriage of the U.S. Government and Social Media
Although Barack Obama does not consider himself a luddite, during a 2022 address at the Stanford Internet Observatory he admitted he has to ask his “daughters how to work basic functions” on his phone. Even fifteen years after joining Twitter, Barack Obama’s background, experience and technological profile is inconsistent with that of someone who could have foreseen the impact social media would have on politics all the way back in 2007.
It is impossible to understand the U.S. Government’s infiltration into Twitter without exploring the role of the man who is most likely to have presided over this unholy union. Today, he is the President and CEO of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (“NATAS”), an obscure individual named Adam Sharp. Before handing out EMMY awards, Sharp joined Twitter in its pre-IPO days, early in November of 2010. Hot topics in DC at that time included regulation of social media firms. It was quietly coming out that many had hired lobbyists to get in front of the issue. Just prior to Sharp joining Twitter, in October of 2010, the LA Times ran an op-ed reporting “Facebook lobbies California on online privacy act (but shhh — don’t tell anyone).
Evidence indicates Sharp’s interest in Twitter began long before he was hired there. While serving as an Executive Producer for C-SPAN in 2009, Sharp launched a public affairs database that included “Twitter and Facebook API integration”. API stands for application programming interface and describes a set of software tools provided to developers to enable customization and integration with other products. Sharp’s utilization of Twitter’s development API is an indication that he was very familiar with the inner workings and unrealized potential of Twitter at least by 2009, likely prior.
Sharp’s online resume fails to discuss Valerie Caproni’s appearance on C-SPAN3 in June of 2009 during the time he was the Executive Producer and managed primetime programming. It is difficult to imagine that the Executive Producer would not interact at all with such an important FBI guest. At very least, as programming manager, Sharp would be aware of the content of the broadcast in which Caproni articulated the FBI’s goals to penetrate online communications. It remains unknown if any interaction occurred between Sharp and Caproni. Even in the event that there was none, Sharp was very likely aware of the FBI’s concerns about “Going Dark” as long ago as 2009.
While at Twitter, Sharp made incredible inroads both for the company and the U.S. Government. https://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/politics/twitter-washington-office
Throughout his time at Twitter, Sharp separately owned and operated Sharp Political Consulting, LLC. Sharp incorporated this firm in April of 2007. This is notably close in time proximity to the March 5, 2007 creation of the @barackobama Twitter account cited in the Atlantic Magazine article, “You’re Not Really Following @BarackObama on Twitter”.
Creation of Obama’s now famous Twitter account is especially notable because Twitter was virtually unknown in 2007. Jack Dorsey had published the world’s first Tweet less than one year prior on March 21, 2006. Obama was not only one of the first politicians to join Twitter, but he was also among the first of all users. Technology moguls including current Twitter CEO Elon Musk, and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates would not join until years later in June 2009. No other person fits the profile or was in the position to put Barack Obama and Twitter together in the way Adam Sharp clearly was.
Journalist Phillip Bump told Atlantic Magazine readers that Obama’s “Twitter account was created by a staffer on March 5, 2007, two months before he formally announced his Presidential candidacy.” The Senate staffer has never been identified, but Sharp was serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Mary L. Landrieu at the time. An election postmortem from the New York Times citing Obama’s genius in leveraging social media declared an anonymous “friend” brought Marc Andreessen to the Obama campaign. Could both of these anonymous King Makers be Sharp? The answer remains a mystery, but it is likely ‘yes’.
Even after Sharp became Twitter’s official Government Liaison, Sharp Political Consulting, LLC remained active and engaged in matters that do not seem to have clear connections to Twitter.
Sharp Political Consulting made over $50,000 in political contributions to Democrat candidates in 2014.
In January 2016, pollsters calculated a 71% likelihood of a Hillary Clinton presidential win. For reasons that are unclear, Sharp voluntarily dissolved Sharp Political Consulting, LLC on January 29, 2016. In December 2016, less than one year later and precisely one month after Donald Trump’s largely unexpected victory over Clinton, Sharp abruptly left his beloved Twitter and promptly formed SharpThings, LLC, just one week after the press release announcing his departure. Sharp would spend a lot of time lecturing about Disinformation in various public speaking engagements from 2016 through 2018 and then during his tenure as CEO of NATAS beginning in 2018. Was Sharp’s departure motivated by an urgent need to step up la Résistance to Donald Trump?
