Egypt

Twitter has become an important channel for the governments in the Arab world to communicate with their people. Interestingly enough, the Egyptian Cabinet Twitter account was launched just after the revolution began. The account is used by the government to share their news and updates with the local population. The cabinet tweets on average 6 times a day and the tweets are automatically generated by its Facebook page. There is no engagement on the account, which is not following any other user. Tweets are in Arabic, in a formal tone and are similar to news alerts that cover news from various ministries and government departments.

The Egyptian government portal is using Twitter as a means to communicate with the public to better facilitate government services, posting the latest updates and clarifying the roles played by the various government agencies. The portal’s tweets also include information on government events such as conferences and exhibitions (Cairo ICT2012). The tweets are used to spread political awareness among the public to vote in the parliamentary elections, giving people inside and outside the country instructions they need to follow and directing them where to go and how to vote. The portal is highly conversational with 37% of the tweets being @replies. The portal constantly encourages people to share their feedback on the services available and how to improve and develop them. Moreover, it interacts with the people by asking for their support to fight corruption and seeks feedback of foreigners who deal with the e-government services. On various religious and national occasions, tweets are always there to congratulate the public. The tweets are in both Arabic and English, but the account has been silent since mid-May 2012.