Web, cross and delight of world leaders. If on the one hand hackers and deep throats get governments into trouble, making the Internet a very dangerous spider web for the powerful, on the other hand global diplomacy makes more and more use of social networks to speak to other heads of state and their own citizens. And the latter, in many cases, listen en masse. The winner of the digital challenge is Barack Obama, according to the latest report by Twitterplomacy, monitoring the powerful who use social networks to do diplomacy.
The special ranking takes into consideration both followers, i.e. users who read the updates of the leader in question, and interconnections, in other words the intricate network of relationships of powerful people who follow each other. A top 50 that well reflects the new global balance, including emerging powers.
Because if in first place we find Obama, in third place is his double: the White House. Between the two, Pope Francis, the ruler of the smallest state in the world, demonstrating the fact that one does not only live in temporal power. It is not clear whether the transition from Ratzinger to Bergoglio has led to a surge in followers.
And then come the surprises. In third and fourth position are Tayyip Erdogan and Abdullah Gul, respectively prime minister and president of Turkey. Rania of Jordan and Indonesian President Yudhoyono follow closely behind. Many Arabs, such as Sheikh Mohammed, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. And there is also room for Mohammed Morsi, elected president of Egypt, deposed and placed under house arrest in less than a year, demonstrating the fact that being followed on Twitter is not always synonymous with popularity. In the top 50 there are practically all the South American leaders, from Dilma Roussef to Rafael Correa, via Maduro and Pinera.
Europe, on the other hand, is struggling. In ninth place is the Twitter profile of "UK prime minister", as if to say "whoever it is". Holland is thirty-first, Merkel instead there is no trace. A necessary premise before emphasizing the heavy absence of any Italian leader. Italy, perpetually in search of an identity, has not yet found it even on Twitter.
