There was once an era when the adage ‘Pen is mightier than sword’ was all the rage. These days, words are no longer just a result of a hand-held instrument spewing ink, but a result of tapping digital devices as well. With the coming of age or the digital era, politicians have turned to social media to put out their opinions and influence trends. Gone are the days when swords and other weapons were used to sabotage another national Leader’s regime. These days, we have Twitter. The ‘Twitter Arena’ has hosted many of these political wars-of-words. It has garnered more attention ever since US President Donald J. Trump has openly applauded Twitter’s efficiency in delivering messages to the people. Unfortunately, this also involved opening the forum for some snubs. Here are the Top 5 Twitter Wars involving international leaders.
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USA vs. Mexico: The War of the Wall
US President Donald Trump kicked up a storm with his US-Mexico border wall promise during his election campaigns. Trump eventually tweeted the following
The Mexican Government probably gave a most gracious response to the situation releasing a statement emphasizing that they will not pay for any border wall, but are willing to help send troops to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, just as they did in the case of Hurricane Katrina.
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India vs. India: Modi Strikes Back!
It is no secret that two people of power with opposing ideologies are extremely unabashed with their responses and snubs to one another. Forget India and any other country. At times, tweets make me wonder if India seems to need help clearing wound inflicted upon itself!
BJP functionary Subramanian Swamy who is known for his critiquing tweets of various government officials from Raghuram Rajan to even Arun Jaitley, was snubbed on national television where he called Mr. Swamy’s tweets and comments to be inappropriate. After the interview, Subramanian Swamy’s critical tweeting seemed to be put to a humble end.
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Present USA vs. Past USA: The Race against Racism
It is no secret that the former President and the current President of the United States could not have more differing views on social issues. After the alt-right terrorism in Charlottesville, Pennsylvania, President Trump failed to condemn the perpetrators responsible in a way that did not endorse racism. However, former President Barack Obama sent out a tweet against the hate crime that eventually became the most like tweet in the history of all things tweeted. What a way to shut things down!
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Kapil Sharma (Trying and Failing to) war with PM Modi
Actor Kapil Sharma went to town on twitter to call out the injustice he has allegedly faced. Though it received quite a lot of media attention, the third most followed world leader on twitter, PM Narendra Modi chose to stay out of this war.
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USA (again) vs. China
President Trump was at it again by tweeting his disappointment towards China.
However, China replied by publishing an article that was widely shared as it had asked President Trump to stop his “emotional venting” on Twitter.
