The actual Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, joined Instagram (@syrianpresidency) on July 24th. Syria has witnessed a civil war for more than 2 years now and it seems the president’s team have got some time to create and manage an Instagram account. This means they believe they can achieve quite interesting political objectives through this: Improve the image and reputation of a man considered as a “dictator” and “murderer” by many people around the world.
The content posted on the account seems to follow an interesting strategy far from the food and #Selfie pictures you usually see on the social network. Pictures are varied, they show the president aside with: Masses, Christian and Muslim religious figures, injured people, women, elderly people, army men, kids, artists, graduates, journalists etc. His wife is also featured in many photos.
What’s the strategy behind it? Most probably show a “human” image of the president in times of extremism across the country. It is also important that his wife has a quite tarnished reputation after the leak of e-mail conversations revealing Ms. Assad’s purchases of high-end fashion clothes while the Syrian population is going through war.
With 32,000+ followers, gained in 10 days, will this Instagram presence make an impact? Is it any efficient? Not so sure. Syria has already been through so many atrocities that it would be hard to make a change through pictures.
What do you think? Was that a good move? Is it useless? Is it unacceptable when many Syrian people are getting killed everyday?
Oh and you can follow me on Instagram (@jad_rahme), I’m sure you’ll find my account more interesting than Assad’s!
Filed under: Social Media
