Foreign Ministries across the world must be spending hours trying to figure out the US President’s Twitter account

Where would Twitter be without its most influential user today? A single user to be precise because without Donald Trump, it is impossible to imagine what social media would be like, for better or worse. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, might have taken measures to stop political advertising and misinformation on the network but stop Donald Trump? No, nothing doing. The tweets by the 45th President of the US must be keeping hundreds of diplomats across the world gainfully employed and have given birth to a full-time news analysis industry, with reams of newsprint and thousands of television hours dedicated to them. His core audience is in the US and across the world. The reaction to his “covfefe” tweet put political analysts and psychoanalysts side by side and puzzled the heck out of diplomats. But his latest tweet, where he edited his face onto a picture of Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone in his famous Rocky Balboa avatar, seems to have confused everyone. Just what is Trump trying to say? Has it something to do with the ongoing impeachment inquiry being conducted by the US House of Congress? Or has it to do with the elections next year? Or is it that Trump is just goading his opponents, implying that he will take on all comers? Whatever it is, Trump’s presence on Twitter is entertaining, market-moving and often positively frightening. The man, who holds the power to destroy human civilisation with the press of a button, has shown little restraint on Twitter. He makes the tweets of Tesla founder Elon Musk seem pedestrian in comparison.

In the process, Trump has made Twitter an essential part of the global political discourse. It is unlikely that he would have been swept to power in 2016 without the social media network. Other politicians across the world have learnt from him and have weaponised it as well. Unfortunately, this has also meant that the social media network and others, particularly Facebook, have become vulnerable to fake news and its promotion. It is not enough to take slow action on this and such platforms have to just step up their act. While Trump and many of his fellow politicians are entertaining, social networks cannot become a means to spread hate and disinformation. As for that Rocky Balboa picture, well, analysis of that will not stop for a while.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)

Foreign Ministries across the world must be spending hours trying to figure out the US President’s Twitter account

Where would Twitter be without its most influential user today? A single user to be precise because without Donald Trump, it is impossible to imagine what social media would be like, for better or worse. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, might have taken measures to stop political advertising and misinformation on the network but stop Donald Trump? No, nothing doing. The tweets by the 45th President of the US must be keeping hundreds of diplomats across the world gainfully employed and have given birth to a full-time news analysis industry, with reams of newsprint and thousands of television hours dedicated to them. His core audience is in the US and across the world. The reaction to his “covfefe” tweet put political analysts and psychoanalysts side by side and puzzled the heck out of diplomats. But his latest tweet, where he edited his face onto a picture of Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone in his famous Rocky Balboa avatar, seems to have confused everyone. Just what is Trump trying to say? Has it something to do with the ongoing impeachment inquiry being conducted by the US House of Congress? Or has it to do with the elections next year? Or is it that Trump is just goading his opponents, implying that he will take on all comers? Whatever it is, Trump’s presence on Twitter is entertaining, market-moving and often positively frightening. The man, who holds the power to destroy human civilisation with the press of a button, has shown little restraint on Twitter. He makes the tweets of Tesla founder Elon Musk seem pedestrian in comparison.

In the process, Trump has made Twitter an essential part of the global political discourse. It is unlikely that he would have been swept to power in 2016 without the social media network. Other politicians across the world have learnt from him and have weaponised it as well. Unfortunately, this has also meant that the social media network and others, particularly Facebook, have become vulnerable to fake news and its promotion. It is not enough to take slow action on this and such platforms have to just step up their act. While Trump and many of his fellow politicians are entertaining, social networks cannot become a means to spread hate and disinformation. As for that Rocky Balboa picture, well, analysis of that will not stop for a while.

(Courtesy: The Pioneer)