Social media in government: 12 January to 18 January

Hashtags #JesuisNigerian and #BokoHaramKilled2000People attracted less attention than #JesuisCharlie. However, in the end social media did respond to images, released by Amnesty International, of the Boko Haram massacre of over 2000 Nigerian civilians the same day that terrorists killed 17 people in France. Ironically, Nigerian politicians, some of whom joined the #JesuisCharlie on Twitter, failed to mention the carnage in their own country. Meanwhile ISIS used the Charlie Hebdo social media buzz to encourage others to #FightForHim by acting as "city wolves" and committing further acts of terror.

While the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo sold out, the controversial cover featuring a sad Prophet Mohammed carrying a sign that says "Je suis Charlie" under the heading "All is forgiven" elicited both praise and fury in social networks. The Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov called for a demonstration against Charlie Hebdo via his popular instagram account. He captioned a picture of himself with the following, "We sincerely love the Prophet Muhammad! We have to pray, live, raise children, work for the sake of Allah! Today, some people without kith or kin, spiritual and moral values are trying to offend the honour of the Prophet. They will never succeed in it!"

Turkey continues to demand that social networks filter posts of documents that might provide evidence that the Turkish government is sharing arms with militant groups in Syria. Twitter has agreed to filter specific posts but refused to ban entire accounts that have supposedly posted the damning documents. Facebook has ignored the government so far. 

The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet decided to go against the national grain and republish the Charlie Hebdo cover in a solidarity move. The paper's editor-in-chief Utku Cakirozer explained the decision on Twitter.

In Afghanistan, an online tool called SadRoz  ("100 days" in Dari) tracks how well the administration of President Ashraf Ghani fulfils election promises. Afghans log-in via Twitter and Facebook to share how well the government is performing in their region.

Ghanaian politicians are slugging it out on social media. The current administration has responded to oppositions' allegations of fraudulent spending by posting photographs of successfully-funded government projects to social media.

With the help of partner countries, Somalia has successfully closed down 20 Twitter accounts that falsely claimed to represent national government figures.

Libyan social media circulated images of men with machine guns claiming links to ISIS and threatening shop owners in Tripoli that sold women's lingerie and make-up.  In response, the Libyan government is asking for international help in addressing domestic terrorism.

The liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was to receive the second instalment of 1000 lashes Friday for his online writing, but these were postponed.

Last Sunday, the UAE launched the National Programme for Government Communication (NPGC) to address national priorities and concerns. The strategy will incorporate traditional and social media to better educate the UAE community on key issues over the next seven years.

The Pakistani activist Mohammad Jibran Nasir is leading a social media campaign to #ReclaimYourMosques. He was angered by a leading local cleric's apologist approach to the Peshawar attack in which Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan killed 130 school children. The apologist cleric has not been arrested or detained by Pakistani authorities.

The Chinese government has closed 50 websites and social media accounts this week for "publishing news without a permit." In addition, Chinese authorities plan to make netizens register for social media accounts with their real names.

Meanwhile Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung admitted,"It's impossible for us to ban [social media]." Instead, he encouraged his government to use social media to "provide the public with official and accurate information in a timely manner on social media."

Australia plans to lift laws demanding a political advertising blackout three days prior to any election. Social media allows such laws to be circumvented; thus the laws seem a bit out of date.

The Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. military Central Command (CENTCOM) were hacked by ISIS or ISIS sympathisers Monday during a cyber-security speech by President Obama. This has spurred a lot of discussion about the importance of securing social networking accounts of federal agencies and employees. The hacktivist group Anonymous stepped in to help find the ISIS culprits, tweeting "We've traced the hacker who infiltrated @CENTCOM to somewhere in the State of Maryland. @FBI, you're welcome." Meanwhile the ominous social media posts of a would-be terrorist helped local law enforcement apprehend the man before he could carry out any attacks.

A social media video campaign aims to collect 440 one-minute videos (as many minutes as there are in a day) from Cubans that want to see change in their government. Find the video and related content under the hashtag #yotambienexijo.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is monitoring the opinion of citizens in social media on everything from holiday billboards to economic policy to collect feedback that can be used to improve the Government's policy and communication efforts. 

Finally the UK is looking into how British women use social media to recruit other British women to participate in ISIS attacks and propaganda.

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.

Social media and government: 5 to 11 January 2015

In France, the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo sparked the trending hashtag #jesuischarliehebdo in support of the victims. The hacker group Anonymous announced via their Belgian social media account that they are declaring war against the terrorists.

In an international survey of writers, PEN, a US-based literary and human rights organisation, noted that 31% of social media users in democratic countries as well as 41% in non-democratic countries have actually avoided activity on social media for fear of government surveillance.

In the USA, the International Conference on Cyber Security hosted Ali Kazemi, associate general counsel at Tumblr. Kazemi noted that "Our primary goal [at Tumblr] is protecting our users and protecting the platform,” he said. “Working with law enforcement is a sort of neutral secondary obligation. At least that’s how we view it."

At the same time, US social media users better trust their network. An American federal court ruled in Palmieri v. United States that if a member of a social media user's network shares content from his or her friend with law enforcement, there has been no violation of privacy.

Speaking of privacy, it is not something enjoyed by public officials in the USA. Via a Facebook comment, a Maryland lawmaker threatened to sue a journalist for using his name in an article. The journalist protested (also via Facebook) that she had a right to write about elected leaders. After he was ridiculed in traditional as well as social media for his lack of knowledge with regard to the rights of the American media, the official made a public apology to the journalist.

Eight vehicles belonging to the Venezuelan state telephone company CANTV were destroyed last week, causing a ripple in national social media. Opposition party leaders were careful to distance their party from the attack and claimed that the governing party used social networks to spread malicious rumours regarding the opposition's involvement in the destruction.

The London public vented their ire about overcrowding on London Bridge station on social media. British transport authorities chastised Network Rail, which has promised to remedy the situation.

Hungary saw another government protest online and offline this week, led by Zsolt Várady, the founder of a one-time social media website iWiW and the current leader of the “MostMi” (Now we) social movement.

In Kenya in the town of Machakos, Governor @DrAlfredMutua used Twitter to chastise the New Year Concert promoter who ripped off several local artists. 

In Burundi, local soldiers killed 100 alleged rebels along the Congolese border. The Legal representative of the Forum for Strengthening Civil Society in Burundi noted with concern that the government may not have been entirely honest in its description of the violence and that the opposition party has shown support for the government's attack via social media.

Egyptian Roads and Bridges Department Head Ashraf Helmy claimed early last week that social media photos showing huge cracks in the 6 October Bridge were inaccurate. He noted that the photos instead showed "longitudinal expansions" and explained these "expansions" would be fixed as soon as possible.

In Turkey, pro-government trolls in social media supported and pro-government press was at best lukewarm in reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris. The pro-government social media troll Esat Ç. tweeted that an attack on a religion is greater terrorism than an armed attack. The pro-government newspaper Türkiye ran a story with the headline, “Attack on the magazine that insulted our Prophet.”

Taliban social media joined other Afghans in social media jokes about the current government's inability to form a Cabinet. In line with the current cold climate in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid allegedly tweeted "Perhaps the cabinet is frozen!"

UAE leader Shaikh Mohammad, one of the top ten world leaders on Twitter, led the social media campaign "Thank you Guardians of the Nation" in honour of the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE military has has participated in bombing missions against ISIS.

In addition to making their sites more mobile, India's leaders are creating their own version of Google Hangouts, called "Talkathon," to better engage with citizens. 

Last week Indian officials unblocked several sites (weebly.com, vimeo.com, dailymotion.com and gist.github.com) that have been blocked since November for hosting jihadist recruitment material.

Mumbai police blocked re-posts of Charlie Hebdo cartoons via social media.

Pakistan is considering legislation to limit social media following the deadly terrorist attacks on a school in Peshawar. 

In China, the People's Daily, a mouthpiece for the ruling party, included an article that asked Chinese to be "good netizens." "We need young netizens to shoulder the responsibility of morality and consciously practice socialist core values online." At the same time, Chinese authorities sought to minimise social media coverage of the deadly New Year's stampede in Shanghai where several people died when people stampeded in reaction to a company tossing coupons that looked like money into the air. Chinese leadership also accidentally admitted to purchasing malware despite legislation forbidding it.

Indonesian professor Rosnida Sari cancelled plans to speak in a Catholic Church as part of her attempt to promote interfaith interaction after being bullied and threatened in Indonesian social media.

A Philippine nurse in Singapore was fired and kicked out of the country after posting comments critical of the Singapore government on Facebook. As a result, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration is considering adding social media training to its pre-departure seminars.

Despite spending several million on listening to Australians in social media, the government in Queensland warned public officials to be careful about their "political commentary" in social media. 

The government of the Solomon Islands promised the social media pressure group Forum Solomon Islands International (FSII) that it's top ten priorities will be in an upcoming policy document. 

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.