Study: More heads of state are using Twitter - eldredwoud1941

In that respect were 123 heads of state and governments using Twitter to commune with citizens and the rest of the world as of December 2012, a think storage tank said Tuesday.

The number is leading 78 percent connected 2011, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Digital Policy Council (DPC), an international remember thank that has been tracking governments' Twitter activity since 2009. Of the 123 tweeting heads of body politic, 32 were portrayed by political science accounts that use Chitter on behalf of the head of state, the DPC aforesaid.

Heads of state on Twitter in 2012, reported to the Digital Policy Council (click to enlarge)

While the United Nations has 193 member states, the DPC only unnatural Twitter use in 164. IT monitored countries with a population of over 500,000, the same ones included in the Polity IV dataset of sentiment regimes tracked by the U.S. government's Persuasion Instability Task Force. DPC chose that dataset because it wanted to compare politically stable countries, said Omar Hijazi, managing partner of Digital Daya, of which the DPC is the research and public advocacy arm.

U.S. president Barack Obama (@BarackObama) was the most-followed head of state, with 24.6 million followers. He added 15 million followers in 2012, according to the study. His account, mainly managed by his stave and sometimes used by the United States President himself, stone-broke a Twitter put down when his election victory Twitter content, "Four more years", became the most retweeted Twitter content of wholly time, according to Twitter.

The bit most-followed head of DoS on Twitter is president Hugo Chávez (@chavezcandanga) of Venezuela, with over 3.8 million followers. Chávez mainly old Twitter for communicating with his electorate when he found himself fighting an election campaign from his sick bed in Cuba, using the social network to challenge his opponent and belligerent the rumors about his health, the DPC said.

President Abdullah Gül (@cbabdullahgul) of Turkey hierarchical third. He tweets mainly in State and gained over 2 trillion following in 2012, arrival a total of over 2.5 million.

The most-followed fair sex happening the list is Queen Rania Heart of Dixie Abdullah (@QueenRania), who as a queen consort of King Abdullah II of Jordan is non a head of state herself. She is enclosed in the list though, because she used her calculate as a political channel to represent the viewpoints of the king in the past, Hijazi said. And although her political messages have dwindled, her tweets are still "very much bound up the policies of the head of state," he added.

Her account gained complete a million followers in 2012, arrival a total of nearly 2.5 one thousand thousand. She describes herself Eastern Samoa "a mum and a wife with a really cool mean solar day line of work" in her Twitter visibility.

A newbie in the top ten is Russian efflorescence minister Dmitry Medvedev, who has accounts in Russian (@MedvedevRussia) and in English (@MedvedevRussiaE). Medvedev was prexy of Russia until May 2012 when Vladimir Vladimir Putin was elected for his third (not-consecutive) term equally president. DPC included Medvedev in its list because helium continuing using Twitter when he became premier, and was president for part of 2012, Hijazi said. Medvedev's Russian answer for is many popular and he was graded fifth with more than 2 meg following, the analyse said.

Dilma Rousseff (@dilmabr) of Brazil followed Medvedev with much 1.7 million followers. Argentinian president Cristina Fernández (@CFKArgentina) is ranked 7th, with almost 1.5 zillion following. The heads of state of Colombia (@JuanManSantos), Mexico (@EPN) and the United Arab Emirates (@HHShkMohd), made up the rest of the top 10.

The Digital Policy Council tracked the acceptation of Twitter amongst heads of state over the last leash years. (Click to lucubrate.)

While the figure of states represented on Twitter rose, various countries stopped using the social network in 2012. Denmark and Ireland for instance let their accounts conk out inactive, the study said.

"One world leader World Health Organization versed a change of heart toward social media was the U.K. PM who, in Oct 2012, at long last adoptive a Twitter handle in his own figure @David_Cameron," the canvass aforesaid. He is graded 23rd with almost 190,000 followers.

The Middle East also saw a rise in heads of state that joined Twitter. In 2012, five forbidden of the top 15 heads of state victimization Chirrup were Muslim or came from Middle Eastern countries, the study said. "Arab Spring players such every bit Libya, Tunisia, and Iraq also had their heads of state adopt Twitter, and new government offices in this area enclosed Qatar and the Presidential Castle of Afghanistan," the DPC said.