Six politicians who have epically failed on Twitter

Thanks to Barack Obama’s successful use of social media in the 2008 elections, all politicians seem to have discovered Twitter and Facebook. From Cory Booker, the US mayor who tweeted his way through his city’s snow crisis, to South African political parties sometimes brilliant use of social media in the recent 2011 Local Government elections this message has clearly spread.

It does not always hit the mark though. Just as brands have sometimes “failed” in their social media usage, so have politicians.

We seem to be a society that is entertained by the fall of political figures. And what better place to watch this happen than Twitter. Sometimes politicians tweet before they think.

So here are a few examples for your enjoyment:

Mike Parry
Mike Parry, who then was a Republican candidate for the Minnesota State Senate (he won) had been doing fairly well on Twitter. He’d even been following advice that not even President Obama had taken heed of and was tweeting information beyond his political life, such as “ok off the plane, now to find the luggage”. However, when he realised he stood a serious chance of taking office he furiously began deleting “offensive” tweets such as the one below.

However, it was too late, bloggers and other tweeters had already taken screen shots and began directing the media to these questionable tweets. His reply to questions ranged from defending them, to denying they’d ever been there, to apparently not knowing how they’d gotten onto his account, to even saying he didn’t even know how to erase a tweet.

Park Yong-mo
Sometimes, as a tweeter, it’s hard to tell just what will garner attention and what will not. However as, Park Yong-mo — a minor figure on South Korea’s Grand National Party’s advisory committee learnt the hard way, on Twitter, just like in real-life, better safe than sorry. Yong-mo learned this lesson when he sent off a stream of insults starting with, “crazy bitch!” to actress and activist Kim Yeo-jin who’d sent out a controversial tweet of her own about a former leader. He continued to say amongst other things, “if you’re ugly, shouldn’t you shut your mouth?” Yong-mo trying to end the surprising “twar” apologised to “everyone except Kim Yeo-jin”. Not too suprisingly he had to resign.

Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, is generally regarded as Africa’s most connected political leader. He was chosen to be the first world leader interviewed in a YouTube series. However, when noted UK journalist, Ian Birrell made remarks about an interview President Kagame had given — which Birrell described as disparaging, instead of ignoring the comment — Kagame chose to reply. Not only did Kagame reply, he lost his cool, his vocabulary degenerating to something akin to that of a fourteen year old girl with tweets such as these.

Gareth Compton
Gareth Compton, who up until a shocking outburst on Twitter in November of last year, was a conservative councillor really ought to have known better than to tweet this.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a writer, didn’t take kindly to his tweet, saying she found his attitude “loathesome’. Compton quickly — but not quickly enough — erased the tweet and tweeted an apology, before shutting down his Twitter account. It wasn’t enough though, the tweet got him arrested. He was then “indefinitely suspended” from his party.

Stuart MacLennan
Like Mike Parry, for Labour candidate in Scotland, Stuart MacLennan Twitter proved to be the proverbial skeleton in the closet. His political career was quickly felled when media went through his tweet stream. Amongst the many things he’d said, he referred to the elderly as “coffin-dodgers”, called opposing politicians, John Bercow and David Cameron a “t*t”, and “t**t”, respectively. On matters of popular culture he’d also had opinions to share with his followers.

The British tabloid, the Sun, at the time of his “Twitter suicide,” reported that he called “X Factor” judge Louis Walsh a “c***”, referred to darlings of Ireland, pop-duo, Jedward as “odious little s***s” and wrote: “I f****** hate Paolo Nutini”, another pop-act he clearly wasn’t appreciative of. He, of course was quickly dropped as a candidate, his apology notwithstanding. What had been humourous when he was just another member of the public, didn’t cut it as a politician. Here’s one of his tweets (fit for publishing) which survive on the web even after he shut down his account.