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DICTATORS AND THEIR FAMILIES SEEK OUT NEW FRIENDS AMONG THE TWITTERATI
The Times (London)
February 12, 2013 Tuesday
Edition 1; Ireland
It's human nature: every dictator wants to be liked and is flattered
by attracting new followers.
Little wonder, then, that an order has gone round Azerbaijan's Ministry
of Economic Development this week to press the "Like" icon on the
Facebook page of President Aliyev. Or as those on Twitter know him,
@presidentaz.
Autocrats of the world are uniting around the idea that they should
be using their thumbs to woo social media.
Partly out of vanity (you don't need the secret police to tell you how
many followers you have accumulated), partly to wrongfoot a virtual
opposition that is building up as internet usage expands, leaders
such as the Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, Rwanda's Paul Kagame
and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have become players.
Even the First Families have become involved.
Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan -
reputed to have boiled alive two of his critics, an old-fashioned way
of unfollowing - is a passionate user of Instagram. Most recently she
tweeted pictures of herself in yoga positions wearing tight gym gear.
That's @gulnarakarimova.
Parody accounts abound, naturally, but these new social media entrants
are the real thing.
@Posts photos The Chechen leader, known for his robust approach to
critics, reveals an almost poetic side that could not possibly have
been dreamt up by a social media adviser. "Grozny at night is so
beautiful," he tweeted under @RKadyrov, writing in Russian. "I rode
through the streets. I sat at a cafe. I had a sausage and pasta.
Aromatic Kalmyk tea with milk. I recommend it."
Ayatollah Khamenei has a cyberspace expert, who says that the Supreme
Leader's Facebook page was set up by fans. But he has been posting
personal black and white photos from the 1970s that could only have
come from his mantlepiece.
It is not exactly revealing, but it wasn't so long ago that the
Iranian authorities were denouncing Facebook as a wicked Zionist tool.
Mr Aliyev has a two-pronged strategy.
On Facebook he is Mr Nice Guy, posing around the world with his
glamorous wife, Mehriban, (@aboutfirstlady), but on Twitter he can
snarl. "Armenia as a country is of no value," he tweeted last November
to howls of protest from his neighbour. "It is actually a colony,
an outpost run from abroad, a territory."
As of last night the President had 35,604 Twitter followers (not many,
presumably, from Armenia) and follows only two accounts: his office
and himself.
It is the gaffes - the embarrassed retreats - that show that there
is a real person at the other end of the smartphone.
In between postings about yoga and her social life, one Twitter
follower asked Ms Karimova what she thought about reports of torture
in Uzbek prisons.
Back came the reply: "MAY I HAVE a FIRM PRECISE CASSES to look at to
get equinted with it and to talk to you then. email:[email protected]"
She never did get back.
From: Baghdasarian
The Times (London)
February 12, 2013 Tuesday
Edition 1; Ireland
It's human nature: every dictator wants to be liked and is flattered
by attracting new followers.
Little wonder, then, that an order has gone round Azerbaijan's Ministry
of Economic Development this week to press the "Like" icon on the
Facebook page of President Aliyev. Or as those on Twitter know him,
@presidentaz.
Autocrats of the world are uniting around the idea that they should
be using their thumbs to woo social media.
Partly out of vanity (you don't need the secret police to tell you how
many followers you have accumulated), partly to wrongfoot a virtual
opposition that is building up as internet usage expands, leaders
such as the Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, Rwanda's Paul Kagame
and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have become players.
Even the First Families have become involved.
Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan -
reputed to have boiled alive two of his critics, an old-fashioned way
of unfollowing - is a passionate user of Instagram. Most recently she
tweeted pictures of herself in yoga positions wearing tight gym gear.
That's @gulnarakarimova.
Parody accounts abound, naturally, but these new social media entrants
are the real thing.
@Posts photos The Chechen leader, known for his robust approach to
critics, reveals an almost poetic side that could not possibly have
been dreamt up by a social media adviser. "Grozny at night is so
beautiful," he tweeted under @RKadyrov, writing in Russian. "I rode
through the streets. I sat at a cafe. I had a sausage and pasta.
Aromatic Kalmyk tea with milk. I recommend it."
Ayatollah Khamenei has a cyberspace expert, who says that the Supreme
Leader's Facebook page was set up by fans. But he has been posting
personal black and white photos from the 1970s that could only have
come from his mantlepiece.
It is not exactly revealing, but it wasn't so long ago that the
Iranian authorities were denouncing Facebook as a wicked Zionist tool.
Mr Aliyev has a two-pronged strategy.
On Facebook he is Mr Nice Guy, posing around the world with his
glamorous wife, Mehriban, (@aboutfirstlady), but on Twitter he can
snarl. "Armenia as a country is of no value," he tweeted last November
to howls of protest from his neighbour. "It is actually a colony,
an outpost run from abroad, a territory."
As of last night the President had 35,604 Twitter followers (not many,
presumably, from Armenia) and follows only two accounts: his office
and himself.
It is the gaffes - the embarrassed retreats - that show that there
is a real person at the other end of the smartphone.
In between postings about yoga and her social life, one Twitter
follower asked Ms Karimova what she thought about reports of torture
in Uzbek prisons.
Back came the reply: "MAY I HAVE a FIRM PRECISE CASSES to look at to
get equinted with it and to talk to you then. email:[email protected]"
She never did get back.
From: Baghdasarian