A minefield of memes: how politics is playing out on social media
Some officials fall foul of Facebook and Twitter, but others are showing how it’s done, writes
The Russians have become notorious for using Facebook and Twitter accounts to amplify propaganda. But there is a less-shadowy way to advance your political cause: by getting creative and using eye-catching video and viral techniques to grab people’s attention.
That is one of the strategies now being employed by US presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg. He is channelling money into an outfit called Meme 2020, which produces pro-Bloomberg viral memes on Instagram. But as ever, it is Donald Trump’s explorations of online culture that provokes the most comment.
At the weekend, he retweeted a video featuring his head superimposed on to footage from the Indian medieval epic
Baahubali 2. It transformed him into a triumphant warrior on a chariot, flanked by loyal soldiers and welcomed by cheering crowds. You can see why it might have appealed to him.
The reality of his arrival in
India was more mundane; he walked down the steps of Air Force One with his wife and two security staff wearing sunglasses. But why bother with fact, when fantasy can get your message across more effectively?
At the weekend, the Special Operations Joint Task Force in Syria tweeted a cartoon-like video to promote its activities, described by one respondent as “part 1980s shopping channel, part 1950s comic”.
The tweet was deleted, but not before being viewed thousands of times. The aim of it was clear: to provoke a strong reaction in an attention-based economy. After all, governments are in the business of self-promotion, just as much as any YouTube influencer.
The problem they have is that most government activity is not interesting to the public. Photographs of politicians signing documents on a wooden desk do not qualify as shareable media – not least when it is wedged between a video of some kittens and a sensationalised account of the activities of celebrities.
There has long been a sense that venturing into the world of memes is inadvisable on a government social-media account. But there are exceptions, where wit, flair and audio-visual skill have been positively received by the wider public.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has, for many years, used a team of Photoshopped animal characters to get its message across in a kooky fashion. Same goes for the New Jersey government, whose jokes and witty digs have helped to accumulate more than 200,000 Twitter followers.
In recent months, politicians have been following their example and raising their game. The
Dutch Ministry Of Transport used a viral BMX video to promote the use of bicycle lights.
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern’s whizz-bang two-minute video listing her government’s achievements grabbed more attention than a press conference ever could.
And a video featuring US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez changing out of her flat shoes into heels on the New York subway is partly credited for her first electoral successes.
But these examples are clever and considered. Stupid, outspoken or outrageous messages also cut through. Populist Tunisian leader Kais Saied may have become known as RoboCop for his charmless image, but his supporters turned it to their advantage with videos portraying him as a man of resolve.
His government, as far as we know, has not been involved – but given that such an approach works, why not go all in? After all, we appear to be in an era where watching your words is becoming less and less of an issue.
It is happening, slowly. A number of Nordic politicians have openly mocked Mr Trump in tweets that went viral; the former Danish environment minister Ida Auken used a Twitter video to ridicule the president’s claim that wind turbines cause cancer.
During the last election in the UK, the press department of the governing Conservative Party caused outrage by renaming its
Twitter account “FactCheckUK” during televised debates and pretending the posts were from an official fact-checking agency.
Such bold approaches are not without risks; spare a thought for Levi Tillemann, a budding US Democrat who published a video where he pepper-sprayed himself in the face to make a now forgotten point about gun violence. He was savagely mocked online, and lost his primary by a huge margin.
In terms of irreverence and a lack of regard for protocol, the gloves may be off. Mr Trump’s use of social media has been much commented upon, but tends to be treated as an anomaly. But it isn’t. In the battle for our attention, things are only going to get sillier.