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29 March 2024

Sheikh Mohammed in top ten of world leaders using social media

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. (FILE)

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By Staff

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has been ranked sixth on the "Heads of State Using Social Media" list compiled by the Washington-based Digital Policy Council, which monitors the usage of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.

According to media reports Sheikh Mohammad is listed in the Top Ten together with other top political personalities like US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Queen Rania of Jordan, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Sheikh Mohammad "continues to engage his citizens and residents with open direct communication," the council said. "

In June this year, he held the first e-session with the public on the Prime Minister's official website.

As of yesterday, Shaikh Mohammad's Twitter page showed 352,389 followers of his tweets, according to Gulf News.

The Council said it has recorded a strong movement towards open government as more leaders are aggressively pursuing social media channels as a new type of direct communication with their citizens and the global community.

Analysis as of this month reveals that 20 per cent, or one out of five heads of state, are at present on the social media site Twitter.

A total of 33 world leaders out of 163 countries have accounts on Twitter set up in their personal name or through an official government office.

This represents a 50 per cent increase in the number of countries from the last quarter of 2009.