Tunisia

President Moncef Marzouki has a Twitter account but is not tweeting personally. It is interesting to see that the President of Tunisia started his Twitter account in March 2011, two months after the revolution, but before he became President, clearly noting the importance of social media. Before the election, his tweets were about his belief in freedom of speech, freedom for Tunisia, transparency and democracy. During the election period in October 2011, Marzouki provided information on how to vote and encouraged his people to be honest and transparent when they voted. Since he became president, he continues to update his followers on his political activities including summaries of his speeches allowing his followers to keep a track of his vision for the future.

The six-month old @PresidenceTN Twitter account tweets only in Arabic and posts news updates and links to official announcements from the presidential office of Tunisia. The account is active averaging 54 tweets a month. However, the account does not engage. It doesn’t participate in dialogue and does not re-tweet or respond to other tweets. The account has only 1,330 followers and follows just 20 accounts, mainly international news organizations. Most of the tweets include the hashtag #TNPR and are automatically generated from the Presidency’s official Facebook page.

The Twitter account of the Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali was active from May 2011 to January 2012. The account was founded prior to his election as Prime Minister on 24 December 2011. The tweets focus on the fact that Jebali came from conservative Islamic background and is head of the Ennahda Movement, a moderate Islamist party. Most of the tweets are about the Ennahda Movement, its ideology and its plans for the future of the country. The tweets are mainly in Arabic, with a few in French. The account is linked to Facebook and has hardly any engagement.