Bashtagging the president

IN GENERAL, President Enrique Peña Nieto has been treated well by Mexico’s mainstream media. His telenovela-star looks—there is seldom a hair out of place—make him easy to photograph. His ambitious reforms have provided splashy news stories. His most vocal opponents, such as protesting teachers, have proved so bothersome to ordinary people that they get no sympathy. Even drug-related violence, which has battered Mexico’s reputation in recent years, has been quietly relegated down the news agenda.

Not so on the internet. Since Mr Peña started his campaign to bring the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) back to power in 2012, he has been relentlessly lampooned in social media. After he was pictured on the cover of Time magazine in February under the headline “Saving Mexico”, doctored versions circulated online of him “Selling” Mexico (or worse). The barbs are often jointly aimed at Televisa, the dominant TV broadcaster, which was the PRI’s loyal echo-chamber throughout its decades-long rule in the 20th century.