SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DICTATORS

Assad Joins Instagram

Posting lots of photos, mostly of his wife.

Just what the world needs: another megalomaniacal dictator using social media. Perhaps as an attempt to appeal to Syrian youth—of course not those against whom he’s been accused of waging chemical warfare—President Bashar al-Assad has joined Instagram. The Syrian leader’s foray into posting filtered photos—mostly of himself and his wife smiling and waving to throngs of supporters—coincided with the Syrian civil war's death toll topping 100,000. The country’s internal violence is now taking approximately 7,000 civilian lives per month, and Assad has been accused of contributing to the mass murder of his people. Nothing like Instagram to make a country of people who hate you forget about alleged war crimes and human-rights violations, right Assad?