That Prime Minister Edi Rama is a great fan of social media is a well-established fact. Most of his communication with the Albanian population – including announcements for new construction projects, governmental plans, and policy proposals – are done through his Facebook account.
The main difficulty with this form of communication is that is difficult to archive within the current data management structures of the government, raising multiple accountability issues. At the same time, social networks often have their own particular user communities and cultures, making some more and some less suitable for one-way propaganda efforts.
Recently, Prime Minister Rama took to Reddit to host an “AMA” (Ask Me Anything) in preparation for the First Diaspora Summit. The AMA, however, was quickly unmasked as a ruse when critical questions were downvoted by Reddit accounts created only hours before the opening of the thread.
When user pershesh asked about the 22.4% tax on internet shopping for items over €20, Rama answered that “it’s a standard procedure that we had to apply to Albania to fight informality which was also fueled by internet shopping.” When cool_penguins subsequently argued that “it’s not. You don’t fight informality by making it harder for your citizen [sic] to buy stuff online. This makes absolutely no sense,” his answer was quickly downvoted by newly created users.
Those same new users, many of which had been created on the same day, asked several questions marked by their laudatory and deferential tone – and all focused on the Diaspora Summit.
For example, neritan9 asked, in his first and only interaction ever on Reddit, “What motivated you to organize this major enterprise, the first ever Albanian Diaspora Summit?” Similarly, blackie_al asked “Dear PM, given the fact that you are hosting the first ever Albania Diaspora Summit i would like to ask what have done the Albanian authorities to extend the right to vote for its citizens living abroad?” While Brikeno wanted to know “who will take part in the Diaspora Summit” and lili2016m had a question about its “purpose.”
Some foreign policy queries were allowed too, as long as they remained close to home. New user empg, for example, “wanted to ask […] about the relationship with Greece.” Another young, fresh, diasporic one-time-only Reddit user, limon1992, wanted to know something about Kosovo and Albania.
To all these questions, Rama responded with extensive answers in spotless English.
Other questions seemed to have been planned to give the whole conversation a more human touch, such as new user pizzafriends asking about his “favorite type of pizza.”
The only time Rama actually responded to a question of a seasoned Reddit user, his performance was less smooth. In response to a question about what his plans are against the “incredible corruption” he referred to the recently published Transparency International report which would show the “steady progress Albania has made in fighting corruption.” As Exit wrote two days ago, Albania is perceived as the third worst corrupt country in Europe – and no progress whatsoever is mentioned in the TI report.
In the same AMA, Rama failed to answer a large number questions, all asked by frequent Reddit users, on the Brexit and Donald Trump. He ignored a question on Ben Blushi’s new party LIBRA, while giving away Mayor Erion Veliaj’s private email address.
Reddit user emrimbiemri123 was kind enough to compile a list of the questions Rama did manage to respond to. As is clear from the list, they are certainly not about “anything.”
And for lewiscbe, who wanted to see a picture of Rama’s sculptures, here is one:
