Candidates meet Twitter founder Jack Dorsey

This Thursday French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and François Bayrou published a series of strange tweets:

Rencontre avec @Jack Dorsey: "Twitter est formidable, en ce qu'il nous oblige à être concret, simple et direct" http://t.co/1s4h3l4x CM

— François Bayrou (@bayrou) March 14, 2012

@jack rencontrera Nicolas Sarkozy ce soir à @elysee pour discuter de #Twitter en France

— Nicolas Sarkozy (@NicolasSarkozy) March 14, 2012

Glad to meet you, @jack, this morning!

— François Hollande (@fhollande) March 14, 2012

This begged the question of who on earth was Jack, and why was he meeting with three of the main candidates for the French presidential elections? Answer: Jack Dorsey is the co-founder and president of Twitter. 

If you needed additional proof that social media of paramount importance in 2012 (as opposed to blogs in 2007, see more here), look no further. The meeting between Sarkozy and Dorsey was even immortalized on Instagram:

From yesterday: President @NicolasSarkozy at @Elysee http://t.co/pqEJFEnF

— jack (@jack) March 15, 2012

Besides underlining the fact that Twitter is now a crucial campaigning tool, Dorsey’s visit didn’t have any immediate impact on the campaign. The American web entrepreneur played it safe by meeting with a classic spectrum of candidates – the incumbent right-wing Sarkozy, the socialist Hollande and the centrist Bayrou. All spoke of web entrepreneurship in France (French news site La Tribune has a good recap here). But the number of French Twitter users (5.2 million according to the latest estimates, only 1.4% of the total number of accounts) is still too small for most of the population to care.

The most interesting outcome of the visit is Dorsey’s announcement that Twitter is going to open offices in France. In an interview with French newspaper Les Echos, he said that “France is probably one of the next countries where we are going to open an office, but we haven’t determined a date yet.” (Twitter already has offices in London, and Google inaugurated its Paris headquarters last December).

Still not convinced of Twitter’s importance in the eyes of French politicians? How about now: even though Dorsey makes no mention of it in the interview, the Elysée claims that opening Twitter offices in Paris was their idea.

Candidates Get Google Bombed – But To No Avail

Google bombing is one of many online guerilla tactics for political campaigning but it is much more fearsome in name than it is in action, as French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande recently discovered.

The Wiktionary gives a simple definition of a Google bomb:

An attempt to influence the ranking of a webpage within the Google search engine by linking to it from many other sources.

Until recently, here were the search results for the terms “incapable de gouverner” (incompetent to govern) and “on va tuer la France” (France is going to be killed).

Search result for "incapable de gouverner" (incompetent to govern)

Search result for “on va tuer la France” (France is going to be killed)

The bombings themselves had very little impact, except for search term spikes and some media coverage. They were not official campaign tactics, and were probably initiated by isolated sympathizers on either side. The goal, by linking a negative search term to the candidate’s campaign or party website, was to smear them. But there are several reasons why these two main candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy to the right and François Hollande to the left, were Google bombed to no avail.

First, the term ‘bomb’ is somewhat misleading. Google bombing is an internet practice that artificially pulls up a desired search result by linking to it from many other web pages, not some massive virus or hacking that implies major damage for a person’s website. It is therefore a much smaller and more futile attempt than, say, a denial-of-service attack, which entirely prevents users from accessing your website.

Manipulating Google’s search algorithm in order to smear a political persona can be effective – anybody who’s ever googled “Santorum” knows as much (even though this wasn’t a Google bombing per se, it had an important aftermath).

But matters never reached those proportions in this French case. Although it is a cheap and easy way of attempting to criticize a candidate, it is quite limited. Very few people are actually going to Google such artificial and convoluted search terms as “incompetent to govern” or “France is going to be killed,” which means the bombing achieves a comic effect at best, and goes completely unnoticed at worst.

Google bombing does not deny access to a candidate’s website or information. More importantly, it is a mere hint of a criticism, not a constructed argument. This means that although opponents of either candidate will find it amusing, undecided voters who happen to stumble upon the Google bombing won’t be swayed by it.

Google bomb? More like Google pschiiit.

Press review #1 – Web Campaigning for Better or for Worse

CC/Flickr/NS Newsflash

Welcome to Geeking the Elysée’s first press review! Today the focus is on online campaigning. Listen to the two audio podcasts below to understand which articles I selected and why. You’ll also find the links to my sources and relevant quotes.

François Hollande launches new campaign website:

Screenshot of toushollande.fr

France Télévisions: François Hollande lance un nouveau site internet destiné à mobiliser militants et sympatisants

Zdnet.fr: Présidentielles 2012 : l’équipe Web d’Obama conseille François Hollande

Le Journal du Dimanche/Europe 1: “Soutenir Hollande en un clic”

“Nothing is left to luck. Some 35 people work every day to spread the Hollande message on the web. Total cost of the operation: two million euros, or 10% of the total budget.”

François Hollande’s campaign websites: http://francoishollande.fr/ and http://toushollande.fr/ 

Worries about data protection: 

CC/Flickr/Cyril Cavalié

Le Point/AFP: Protection des données personnelles: la Cnil crée un Observatoire élections 2012  

OWNI.fr: Fichez les tous!

La Croix: La Cnil surveille de près la campagne présidentielle

“Since 2006, says the Cnil, regulations haven’t evolved. Practices, on the other hand, have deeply changed; with the spread of text message contacts, the creation of a gigantic list of sympathizers for the Socialist primaries, or the importance of social networks like Facebook.”

The Cnil (Commission National de l’informatique et des libertés, or National commission for information technology and liberties) website – http://www.cnil.fr/ – and recommendations for the campaign.

François Hollande: Flour Power Gone Viral

One of many parodies after the incident.

Presidential campaigns aren’t always a piece of cake, especially in an age when every mistake, slip of the tongue and gaffe instantly go viral online. Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande‘s – culinary – mishap is yours to discover on my first Storify by clicking on the image below.

Screenshot of François Flour-Bombed, an Aurelien Breeden Storify

The whole flour incident is of little consequence on the overall elections, but it shows how the Internet coupled with social media enables rapid-response reactions to any tiny stumble, on both sides. It is as easy for opponents of François Hollande to quickly build a Flash-based game ridiculing him as it is for his sympathizers to spread footage of their champion reacting to the event. All in all, the speed with which this kind of story goes viral means that except for the truly polemic or personal ones (think “Casse-toi pov’ con” or “sale mec“), most of these “political” events are over in a 24-hour news cycle.

N.B: Storify has a built-in export tool in order to embed creations in WordPress. I have tried it mutliple times, but to no avail. If you have any tips or solutions to this problem, please comment!