WASHINGTON: An analysis of Twitter messages from the Arab-speaking world reveals strong anti-American sentiment, suggesting that social media posts may offer insights opinion polls cannot.
According to a research report released this week, the tweets reflect deep skepticism about the United States on issues related to the conflict in Syria and the overthrow of the Egyptian regime in 2013.
“If you want to know how people in a given society who are on Twitter are reacting to events in real time, this is a great way to find out, so long as there is no systematic censorship,” said Robert Keohane, a Princeton University professor who worked on the study. “You get quite a reliable sense of the reaction of a certain part of the public to these events and you can differentiate the types of reaction.”
The paper, released by the university, was presented last month at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.
Researchers used a tool created by social media analytics firm Crimson Hexagon to examine millions of Arabic-language tweets related to events in 2012 and 2013. They measured reaction to Washington’s positions on the civil war in Syria, the polemic over the “Innocence of Muslims” video, the Boston Marathon bombing, the removal of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the eastern United States.
In the case of Egypt, the researchers analyzed more than 2.2 million Arabic tweets that mentioned the United States and found just three percent could be termed pro-American, with 23 percent neutral and the majority critical of the United States.
AFP
