BackThe White House launches Twitter handle to engage Iran deal critics
@TheIranDeal is also the first time the 'administration has launched an issue-specific Twitter handle', says a report
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In a bid to reach out and eventually win over the strident, mostly-Republican critics of the historic Iran nuclear deal, the White House has resorted to microblogging site Twitter as part of its communication strategy.
It launched @TheIranDeal on Wednesday, to “engage the public and correct misconceptions about the deal," according to a story in Politico, a daily newspaper that focuses on the country’s politics and policy.
@TheIranDeal, the story adds, is also the first time the “administration has launched an issue-specific Twitter handle."
The historic agreement was signed last week after nearly 20 months of negotiations between Iran and six ‘world powers’ or P5 + 1 countries, which includes the US, China, Russia, France, the UK plus Germany. The deal essentially sought to limit Iran’s nuclear ability for 15 years, with a comprehensive inspection regime in exchange for lifting long-standing economic sanctions on Iran. The deal was endorsed by the United Nations on Tuesday.
After the deal was signed, it was subject of an intense debate within the US, with strident opposition from skeptics, including those from the Republican Party.
The timing of the White House’s social media offensive seems rather interesting, given that the deal will now face review in the Congress, where the Republicans are in control of the house with 245 seats. The Congress has 60 days to review the deal. The Politico report, quoting senior administration officials said the White House plans “to cast @TheIranDeal as an account with a confident, have-at-me attitude, similar to the president’s freewheeling news conference last week in which he practically dared the press corps to throw more questions about the deal at him so that he could knock down criticisms. The account will update in a real-time fashion, the officials said. It will do everything from retweet the musings of supporters to host Twitter chats to directly engage with critics."
The White House’s @TheIranDeal initiative came under immediate criticism from Republican presidential candidates, including Ted Cruz, who tweeted “*BLOCK*" “after retweeting a reporter posting about the handle," the Politico report stated. Unsurprisingly, another presidential aspirant, Bobby Jindal, also the governor of Louisiana, took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the deal itself. He wrote, “.@TheIranDeal, why did you make a deal with United Nations before the US Congress? Shows us where your priorities are."
@TheIranDeal’s launch, the report says, also gave birth to twitter handles like @TheIranBomb, which it said, promised to “torment the White House account."
A parody account, @TheIranMeal also followed course with a bio that read, “Get the facts on the #IranMeal. Tweet us your questions, and we’ll set the record straight. Tweets may be digested."
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