Merkel’s Turkey visit jeered on Twitter

Politicians with any communications sense whatsoever are using Twitter to send their messages to their voters and the media, hoping for a retweet to thousands of followers which will increase their own following.

By and large, Twitter is an effective way to spread the word quickly, especially on political topics that affect the news and are closely followed by the many journalists and activists on the social networking site.

But it can backfire quite spectacularly, especially if the commentators perceive any pomposity, self importance or dictatorship. Take, for example, German Chancellor Merkel’s recent visit to Turkey, which was captured by Reuters in all its glory at the presidential palace, where she sits next to President Erdogan.

A Reuters photo of Merkel and Erdogan in splendour, to raucous jeers on social media.

Twitter commentators went into raucous jeering mode.

“#Merkel, german chancellor and queen of europe, meets Khalffa #Erdogan in style and opens new gates,” says Johan S.

“Well, this is awkward,” posts satirical commentator GreekAnalyst.

“#Erdogan welcomes #Merkel with golden thrones at desperate #refugeecrisis meeting ahead of #Turkey elections on Nov,” writes journalist Bojan Panjevski.

“#GAMEofTHRONES The Ottoman Nightmare. #MERKEL #ERDOGAN,” posts Istanbul Themes.

“#Queen #Merkel on Ottoman throne today in Istanbul, cost 10% popularity loss tomorrow,” writes Sysiphus of Prinkipio.

The comments vary from factual to jeering and to the kind of outright abuse which is basically unprintable and not worth writing about, in my opinion.

Even the fact that Merkel didn’t wear a headscarf got some oblique commentary, as Erdogan’s wife seemingly gives her the evil eye in a shot posted on Twitter by a local Istanbul resident (below).

Evil eye?

Twitter, like all media, brings the facts to light - unlike traditional media, it also allows thousands of voices to chime in on world events, and can turn public opinion on a dime.

Ironically, Erdogan tried and failed to shut down Twitter in his country, while failing miserably to understand how it works or to shut it down in the rest of the world.

Freedom of speech will always be protected by the Internet, which is a vast interconnected system of computers driven by one underlying need - the need to know. Any politician trying to use it for their own ends had better realise that it is a tool for transparency, not for whitewashing or propaganda, because those who guard freedom of speech will not hesitate to let the emperor know that he is naked in front of the world.

Social Media Digest highlights interesting social media trends and is sponsored by the digital marketing communications consultancy and video productions firm Jazz Arts & Communications, written by Sarah Fenwick. Contact us for your digital marketing advice.