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January 20, 2014 9:43 AM   Subscribe

@Sweden is run by a different Swede each week. But what are the other @countries and @territories up to?

Africa
@Algeria "loves my country muchly" but not enough to tweet anymore. @Angola is a protected personal account. @Benin has only posted once. @Botswana shares news from Southern Africa. @BurkinaFaso is some dude in Portland. @Burundi hasn't tweeted yet, nor has @Cameroon or @CapeVerde. @CentralAfricanRepublic isn't on Twitter. @Chad is unsurprisingly not the country. @Comoros hasn't tweeted. Neither has @CoteDIvoire (or @IvoryCoast). @Congo exists, but you really want @DemRepCongo or @CongoRT. @Djibouti's been on hold for a long time. @Egypt IS NOT THE COUNTRY, OKAY? @EquatorialGuinea doesn't exist, and @Eritrea and @Ethiopia are suspended. @Gabon is silent and @Gambia is dormant. @Ghana is a tour guide. @Guinea is privately parked. @GuinneaBissau doesn't exist. Kenya is a woman. @Lesotho is a public one. @Liberia is protected, with a dead bio link. @Libya went silent in 2011. @Madagascar was parked by DreamWorks Animation. @Madeira wants you to visit. @Malawi is protected. @Mali brings you news. @Mauritania is empty. @Mauritius shares island news. @Morocco is quite active. @Mozambique is a missionary's protected account. @Namibia hasn't tweeted. @Niger tweeted twice in 2007. @Nigeria is suspended (for Twitter scams?), as is @Rwanda. @SaoTome and @Principe aren't the islands. @Senegal and @Seychelles are both silent, and @SierraLeone is suspended. @Somalia hasn't tweeted since 2008. @SouthAfrica is for tourists. SouthSudan covered 2010's elections, and @Sudan hasn't tweeted at all. @Swaziland is a Belgian. @Tanzania is on-topic but dormant. @Togo is a guy in Tokyo. @Tunisia is a protected placeholder. @Uganda is emo. @Zambia is conversational. @Zimbabwe is "listening to megans song."


Asia
@Abkhazia and @Afghanistan are suspended. @Azerbaijan says "South Azerbaijan is not Iran." @Bangladesh likes photos of the country. @Bhutan hasn't tweeted in awhile. @Brunei is suspended, and @Cambodia hasn't tweeted yet. @China has only tweeted six times. @HongKong is a guy in Hong Kong. @India is run by a site that now appears closed. @Indonesia is a news portal. @Japan is on hold. @Khazakhstan has failed to launch. @NorthKorea. @SouthKorea might be a joke. (@Korea is in Korean.) @Kyrgyzstan isn't doing much. @Laos is a guy in Nashville named Ray. @Macao is a tourist site. @Malaysia is "in no way affiliated with the government." @Maldives is a bit touristy. @Mongolia posted once in 2008. @Myanmar was spam from the start. @Nepal is a designer in Kathmandu. @SouthOssetia hasn't tweeted. @Pakistan is suspended. @Philippines is based in Manila. @Singapore is "the more relevant Tweets to Singapore." @SriLanka is "hosted by a citizen." @Taiwan hasn't tweeted yet. @Tajikistan stopped tweeting on his first day of work in 2009. @Thailand alternates between English and Thai. @TimorLEste weirdly tweets about movies, while @EastTimor is an Australian lawyer. @Turkmenistan covered the country until mid-2013. @Uzbekistan appears to be for sale. @Vietnam is suspended.


Europe
@AlandIslands went dormant in 2009. @Albania has been taken over by spammers, unsurprisingly. @Andorra is empty. @Armenia is protected. @Austria is possibly not official. @Belarus is newsy. @Belgium is empty. @Bosnia got sick and forgot about Twitter in 2008, while @Herzegovina never got started. @Bulgaria likes to retweet. @Croatia has tweeted intermittently. @Cyprus and @NorthernCyprus are tourism accounts aimed at the Brits. @CzechRepublic is Adam Koehler, and @CeskaRepublika isn't anything. Neither is @Denmark. @FaroeIslands is silent. @Estonia is relatively active. @Finland fills you in on Finnish name days. @France is French news. @Georgia is the wrong one; @GeorgiaRepublic is the right one, but dormant. @Germany mostly retweets. @Gibraltar isn't Gibraltar. @Greece is dormant.@Hungary is registered but that's it. @Iceland is something. @Ireland stole @Sweden's idea. @Italy is newsy. @Kosovo is spammy. @Latvia doesn't tweet. @Liechtenstein lives in Mexico. @Lithuania is official. @Luxembourg tweets regularly. @Macedonia protected, but links to a conspiracy. @Malta is constant news. @Moldova has a personal touch. @Monaco is suspended. @Montenegro is Leslie, not the country. @Netherlands is suspended. @Norway tweets news. @Poland is suspended. @Portugal is mostly about futbol. @Romania used to be videos; now it's the same questionable links as @Kosovo. @Russia is silent, and @SanMarino is too. @Serbia is "a place with too much history." @Slovakia signed up for Twitter in 2008. @Slovenia is pretty quiet. @Spain is for tourists. We already talked about @Sweden. @Switzerland is a news feed, as is @Turkey. @Ukraine is suspended. So is @UnitedKingdom, but @GreatBritain is verified. (@Scotland is nothing, @Wales is Carolyn, @Cornwall has been dormant a long time and @England is a test account. @Britain is a guy in Ann Arbor. @Guernsey hasn't tweeted, @IsleOfMan cut some wood in 2008, and @Jersey is spam.) @VaticanCity is suspended, but the @Pontifex is pretty active.

Middle East
@Bahrain is an activist. @Iran is a project. @Iraq has been suspended, but @IraqiKurdistan is just empty. @Israel's account is maintained by the Foreign Ministry's Digital Diplomacy Team. @Jordan is an American designer, not the country. @Kuwait is just some Kuwaiti. @Lebanon is a feed of Daily Star of Lebanon headlines. @Oman is Indonesian. @Palestine is a news aggregator. (@GazaStrip has only tweeted once, and @WestBank is in Chinese.) @Qatar waited six years between tweets. @SaudiArabia says "Peace upon you" in Arabic. @Syria stopped tweeting about the revolution in 2011. @Turkey tweets out Turkish Topix.com posts. @UnitedArabEmirates doesn't exist, and @UAE is out of service. @Yemen tweets all things Yemeni.

North America, Central America & the Caribbean
@Anguilla is dark. @Antigua is a guy who loves his island. @Aruba has been suspended. @Barbuda isn't much of anything. @Bahamas tweeted once in 2008. @Barbados is touristy. @Belize is an indie travel guide. @Bermuda is a triangle. @Bonaire is protected. @Canada was taken over by Canada in 2012, but they haven't done anything with it. @CaymanIslands has gone quiet. @CostaRica mostly aggregates other Costa Ricans' tweets. @Cuba has been suspended. @Curacao is protected. @Domenica is a Macedonian woman. @DominicanRepublic doesn't exist. @ElSalvador has been suspended. @Guadeloupe is an aggregator. @Greenland has tweeted twice in Japanese. @Grenada lives in Fort Worth. @Guatemala is a Methodist missionary. @Haiti is a photographer and teacher. @Honduras is a protected Montrealer. @Jamaica shares local news. @Martinique is a woman in San Francisco. @Montserrat is someone's first name. @Mexico retweets people. @NavassaIsland doesn't exist. @Nicaragua has been suspended, as has @Panama. @PuertoRico hasn't tweeted. @Saba is a Japanese woman who wants to be a cat. @SaintBarthélémy hasn't tweeted yet. @SaintKitts and @Nevis are empty, and @SaintKittsNevis is suspended. @SaintLucia is silent. Neither @SaintMaarten nor @SaintMartin is active. @SaintPierre is going swimming, but @Miquelon is an activist. @SaintVincent is neither the country nor the rocker you think it is, but @TheGrenadines just tweets travel deals. @SanAndres has only tweeted once, but @Providencia is a Brazilian beer. @SintEustatius has a population of over two thousand people! @TrinidadTobago hasn't tweeted yet, but @Trinidad is just chilling and @Tobago is a photographer. @TurksandCaicos has been hacked. @UnitedStates is for conservatives only, @US is a .us domainer, @USA is "USA facts," and then there's @America. @USVirginIslands shares island news.

South America
@Argentina is suspended, as is @Bolivia. @Brazil has World Cup fever. @Chile is a guy in Chicago who loves soccer. @Colombia is suspended. @Equador hasn't tweeted yet. @Galapagos tweeted once. @FalklandIslands is Malaysian? Neither @Guyana nor @FrenchGuiana has tweeted. @Paraguay and @Peru are suspended. @Suriname is a news feed about the country. @Uruguay and @Venezuela are suspended.

Australia, New Zealand & Oceania
@Australia is the official tourism account. @ChristmasIsland has been hacked. @CocosIslands hasn't tweeted. @CookIslands is a tourism account. @CoralSeaIslands doesn't exist. @EasterIsland is protected. @Fiji used to be a Japanese cat, but hasn't tweeted since 2007. @FrenchPolynesia is protected. @Guam is suspended. @Kiribati is silent. @MarianaIslands isn't sure how to use Twitter. @MarshallIslands is suspended. @Micronesia is a guy named Alfred. @Nauru is someone in Maryland. @NewCaledonia is an inactive tourist page. @NewZealand has written two cryptic tweets. @Niue is looking for a new job. @NorfolkIsland hasn't tweeted. @Palau is suspended. @PapuaNewGuinea's tweets are protected. @PitcairnIslands has remained silent. @Samoa used to retweet photos (@AmericanSamoa is suspended.) @SolomonIslands is suspended. @Tokelau was a bit raunchy. @Tonga lives in Chiba, Japan. @Tuvalu tweeted in German in 2007. @WakeIsland is a dude named Molokai. @WallisandFutuna is a resident of the islands. @Vanuatu is a protected "pacificxpat."

Antarctica
@Antarctica tweeted twice in 2007.
posted by me3dia (33 comments total) 88 users marked this as a favorite
 
@SealandGov
posted by Flunkie at 9:55 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


You weird, wonderful man.
posted by cortex at 10:00 AM on January 20, 2014 [15 favorites]


What a cracking post. @wesome.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:01 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


@Greece is dormant

Ah, sad. I held out a bit of hope for @Hellas, but it's spamtastic. yeah no not worth linking don't even check it out

Great post, though!
posted by taz at 10:06 AM on January 20, 2014


Global Climate Change news: @Earth hasn't tweeted since #MeDay last April. @TheSun is also silent.
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:08 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


You forgot the Holy Roman Empire account.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:09 AM on January 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


@Equador hasn't tweeted yet.

The country name is spelled Ecuador, and the @Ecuador account is suspended.
posted by Harpocrates at 10:09 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


The country name is spelled Ecuador, and the @Ecuador account is suspended.

Ouch, you're right. Thanks.
posted by me3dia at 10:11 AM on January 20, 2014


Reading through this was like listening to "88 Lines About 44 Women" rewritten for a geography lesson aimed at the twitter-obsessed. Bravo.
posted by DyRE at 10:19 AM on January 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


Thank God you didn't decide to break down a US section with all the major cities that have their own accounts (like New Orleans' @BeingNOLA for example) because they probably would have found you dead at your keyboard from exhaustion, old age, or a combination of both. Frankly I'm astounded you made it as far as you did.
posted by komara at 10:21 AM on January 20, 2014


@komara, I thought about doing the states, but felt that was better left for another post. Cities would indeed be exhausting.
posted by me3dia at 10:24 AM on January 20, 2014


@PeopleofCanada is what we want instead @Canada
posted by Kurichina at 10:25 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


A little background: I used Wikipedia's lists of countries and territories by continent (linked in the headers) and held myself to country names (except where I added a couple alternatives, obviously). And I left out some uninhabited islands and territories or regions that aren't widely recognized.
posted by me3dia at 10:28 AM on January 20, 2014


@PeopleofNZ is a rotating account of New Zealanders. If that's what you're into.
posted by aychedee at 10:51 AM on January 20, 2014


As a Netherlander I just have to point out that @Netherlanders exists. Same idea as @Sweden!
posted by Caconym at 10:52 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


run by a different Swede each week

Or in the mid-Atlantic idiom, "submitted for review to a different rutabaga each week"
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:27 AM on January 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


@Montserrat is someone's first name.

Don't want to make that Montserrat mistake.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:28 AM on January 20, 2014


High quantity post.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:29 AM on January 20, 2014


No love for The Moon?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:39 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


I have now not only signed up for Twitter but am now following THE WORRRRRRLLLLDDDD!!!!!!
posted by chainsofreedom at 11:51 AM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


Note that those are all English names for countries. It's interesting to try their own names. @nederlands and @brasilia are both suspended, and @nippon would like some help using tweeter [sic] please. @deutschland and @sverige seem to be more in the spirit of things.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:48 PM on January 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


(Sorry, I should have tried "@nederland", not "@nederlands" which is completely wrong. The former is at least an active account but not doing much.)
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:50 PM on January 20, 2014


Bit ashamed about the United Kingdom - can't we buy it back or something? Usual foresight there. Cameron's posts are automated - you may have missed when he was following a 'high-class' escort agency if you didn't live here - (they weren't even high class enough to pretend it wasn't prostitution) i can only hope, after his 'signing up for a Weibo account' back on his arse-lick/visit recently, that's automated too, by an english-speaking robot, i look forward to the fun.... The only one worth following is @iran, which is like PressTV but too short to mix truth and lies in a way that needs your brain to separate (before you jump on me, i've been reading western news for forty years, so decoding it takes seconds)
posted by maiamaia at 12:54 PM on January 20, 2014


This is a fun post, but here's a list of Rotation Curation accounts if that's what you're seeking. It's not the most updated list (@Bangkoking has changed to @Thailander and has been tweeting lots about the riots of late, for example) but it's more in the spirit of things!
posted by hellopanda at 12:59 PM on January 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


@italia has 12K followers but only follows one account, @BarackObama. I'm not sure what to make of that.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:04 PM on January 20, 2014


Shortly after seeing this post I was retweeted by the entire country of Sweden.

The Internet is a weird place.
posted by Spiced Out Calvin Coolidge at 1:18 PM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


I was just to point out that @Madeira is not in Africa (although on the African Tectonic Plate), it's a Portuguese archipelago, part of the Europe.
posted by khonostrov at 1:41 PM on January 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


@George_Spiggott, excellent point. I suspect the success rate for native spellings would be slightly higher. Part of the inspiration for the collection was discovering that some English-language country names were taken by individuals, some of whom seemed absolutely clueless as to why someone would think it was the country (eg, @Egypt's angry bio.)

@khonostrov True. As I mentioned, I listed according to Wikipedia's divvying of countries. For whatever reason, Madeira is included in the "other areas" section of the Africa list.
(It being Wikipedia, you can change that if you feel strongly.)
posted by me3dia at 2:20 PM on January 20, 2014


@me3dia I get the geographical reason for it to be included there, I wrote that because in this kind of presentation it's better to list it as European, although it's unlikely anyone would be looking for Madeira.
posted by khonostrov at 2:56 PM on January 20, 2014


I see the Principality of Sealand has been mentioned.
Here are some of the other micronations:
Freetown Christiania - @ChristianiaInfo hasn't tweeted yet.
Talossa - @Talossa hasn't tweeted since 2012.
Nova Roma - @NovaRoma hasn't tweeted yet.
Grand Duchy of Flandrensis - @Flandrensis has a vague link, she likes Belgian chocolates.
The Territory of Poyais - @poyais got excited on April Fools Day 2009.
Republic of Jamtland - @jamtland hasn't tweeted yet.
Aerican Empire - @aerica hasn't tweeted yet.
Republic of Molossia - @Molossia A genuine account with a sense of humour. MUST BE FOLLOWED.
Kugelmugel - @kugelmugel hasn't tweeted yet.
San Serriffe - @sanserriffe hasn't tweeted yet.
Republic of Saugeais - @saugeais made a half-hearted effort to make money in July 2011.
Akhzivland - @Akhzivland hasn't tweeted yet.
The Conch Republic - @conchrepublic watched some elections in 2008 and got bored.
Republic of Lakotah - @lakotah hasn't tweeted yet.
Kingdom of Wallachia - @Wallachia was single, hopelessly lost, forty-three and a writer of horror fiction in 2012.
Dominion of Melchizedek - @melchizedek hasn't tweeted yet.
Principality of Seborga - @seborga Anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault. At least it's in the right part of the world unlike a lot of the others here.
Principality of Hutt River - @huttriver This Hutt River is in New Zealand, not Australia.
Sovereign State of Forvik - @forvik has protected tweets.
Principality of Freedonia - @Freedonia pushed Raspberry Ketones up until 2012.
Kingdom of Redonda - @Redonda is run from Vancouver, not a tiny uninhabited Caribbean island.
Lundy - @lundy lives for baseball, beer, buffalo wings and my beard. Nothing more, nothing less. In New Jersey
Principality of Outer Baldonia - @baldoniA hasn't tweeted yet.
Republic of Rose Island - @roseisland is Japanese and hasn't tweeted since 2012.
Republic of Minerva - @minerva is a bunch of Dutch students.
Province of Bumbunga - @bumbunga seems to be Korean.
Independent State of Rainbow Creek - @rainbowcreek loves sewing, quilting & blogging in Colorado.
Grand Duchy of Avram - @avram is from Brooklyn.
Whangamomona - @whangamomona hasn't tweeted yet.
posted by unliteral at 9:54 PM on January 20, 2014 [3 favorites]


@bronx no longer lives in the Bronx and is sitting here reading Metafilter.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:31 AM on January 21, 2014


Funnily enough, @ireland is currently being curated by a friend of mine.
posted by TwoWordReview at 9:53 AM on January 27, 2014


Oh man, this IS an epic post. Love, @britain.
posted by britain at 10:59 AM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


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