Top10 Rankings 2013 Summary Report

Research Note: World Leader Rankings on Twitter December 2013 9 top 15. According to data from PeerIndex in November, Cameron’s account is the 7th most influential within the UK. The Middle East In 2013, four out of the Top 10 heads of state using Twitter were pre-dominantly Muslim/Middle Eastern countries and five out of the top 15 with the inclusion of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of Malaysia. In the Middle East, Twitter is used for secular, national identities as well; Lebanese President Michel Sleiman’s Twitter bio line reads, “Our national unity has cost us a lot, so let us preserve it together, hand in hand.” His direct tweets are signed with his initials. 2013 saw the addition of Iran’s new-elected President Hassan Rouhani who became active on Twitter even though it is blocked in his own country. While it’s evident that a third party is tweeting for President Rouhani, the account expresses his political opinions and attracts the rapt attention of diplomatic and intelligence officials around the world. The account, with over 150,000 followers, is geared to Western audiences, although there is a Persian account as well. According to a report in The Guardian, the Rouhani administration sees Internet censorship as “futile” and will work to lift the ban on restricted social media sites. Since the country’s full governmental authority is under the hand of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who pushes for the policing of online activities of Iranian citizens, it is not easy for the president to stop Internet restrictions. In the days leading up to the fall of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, when his one-year reign would be cut short due to massive Egyptian protests calling for his resignation, he sent out a series of tweets negating the legality of his takedown by the military. While these tweets were in the past understandable only to those who read Arabic, during this time Twitter began testing a Bing-powered English translation tool on Morsi’s and other prominent Egyptian’s accounts, so that users worldwide could understand the tweets during these historic moments. While Morsi held the #14 position in 2012, the main account for the provisional government is a lot less popular, just squeaking by in the top half of leaders. Adoption Rate among Leaders Has Stalled 2013 is the first year it has been necessary to examine the countries that are the major holdouts toward reaching 100% Twitter penetration for all nations. In order to contain Internet dissent and protest, China aggressively censors the web. In the world’s most populated country, the government has consistently blocked access to Twitter since 2009. Nonetheless, Global Web Index has claimed there are 35.5 million active Twitter users in China, accessing the site most likely via VPN software. However, China has its own Twitter-like platform called Sina Weibo with over 500 million registered users. Since users can potentially post socially and

Top10 Rankings 2013 Summary Report

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