US Twitter diplomacy trips over Cairo and Libya attacks

While protesters outside were trying to attack their Embassy, American officials in Cairo engaged in a sharp exchange on Twitter with the Muslim Brotherhood. They tweeted to the Muslim Brotherhood: ‘Thanks. By the way, have you checked out your own Arabic feeds? I hope you know we read those too.’

This tweet from the US Embassy in Cairo was retweeted about two thousand times in the past one and a half day. The Embassy staff were reacting to supposed doublespeak on the part of the Brotherhood, after a tweet sympathising with Embassy staff was posted on its English account @ikhwanweb while one praising the demonstrations ‘in defence of the Prophet’ appeared on its Arabic feed @ikhwantawasol.

‘Under a lot of stress’
The people behind @ikhwanweb reacted sharply: ‘We understand you're under a lot of stress, but it will be more helpful if you point out exactly the Arabic feed of concern.’

With additions like ‘Epic!’ ‘Hilarious!’ the US Embassy tweet was retweeted about two thousand times and posted on several Facebook pages. Some Tweeps asked the two account holders to ‘stop, go outside (for the fight)’ or to ‘grow up and get professional’.

Not the first controversial tweet
The interesting thing is that these tweets follow closely on an earlier controversy over the Embassy’s posts on Twitter. Hours before the tragic events in Libya, in which US Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed, the Embassy tweeted that ‘we firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others’.

US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was quick to try and put this statement to political purposes and wrongly suggested that it was a reaction to the violent events rather than an effort to calm the situation. This misinformation provoked even more angry statements on Twitter from Egyptians and Americans alike, such as: ‘Why are American's apologizing for their freedom of speech?’ (@amirakhalil) and @Monica Crowley: ‘On 9/11, Islamist mob storms our Egypt embassy, burns our flag, raises the AlQ flag. And @USEmbassyCairo apologizes TO THEM. WHAT THE BLEEP?’

Against Washington’s will
According to a report on the Foreign Policy website the controversial statement had been posted by the Embassy without clearance from Washington and even went against explicit instructions not to post the statement without major modifications.

The Embassy staff handling the account continued to engage with Tweeps and enter into discussions about the statements. Another website, Buzzfeed, points out that some of the tweets have now been deleted from the Embassy account.

But while one Tweep (@NSharara) expects that ‘your tweets r going be under your supervisor's review pretty soon’ and others ask ‘who’s responsible for this account?’, the Embassy staff in Cairo running the Twitter account seems to feel comfortable maintaining its very conversational tone with followers.

Don’t call us
Some Tweeps call the controversial tweets from the US Embassy, ironically or not, a candidate for the first prize in Twiplomacy. On Friday there was another ‘exchange for the annals of diplomacy’, as ‏Tweep @Yarotrof calls it: the US Embassy, replying to a follower’s request about Morsi’s stance: ‘Why are you asking us? His Twitter account is --> @MuhammadMorsi’.

For once, the Brotherhood account holders seems to take the same policy line as their American counterparts in Cairo: ‏@Hahellyer tweets he got the response ‘u ask the prez @MuhammadMorsi’ on his requests for information (while the last tweets from Morsi on this account date from the 7th of September).

Top Twiplomacy
The tweets from the US Embassy in Cairo do follow social media rules: keeping close to their readers, and getting the Embassy a lot of exposure through the thousands of retweets.
But maybe this kind of attention is not exactly what the Embassy, or the American leaders in Washington for that matter, are looking for right now.