According to Country Meters.com as of 2015 Colombia has a staggering population of 49,547,871 and of that population over 22 million have access to the internet and Facebook. Internet usage has increased over the past several years. A survey done by Internet World Stats showed that in 2011 about 53.4% but over time internet usage have increased by 9.5 % by 2013. Social Media plays a major role in the Colombian government and what it does.
Colombia's Press status is partly free but that doesn't mean that the government is constantly watching what it citizens are posting. Even heads of states are under a watchful eye when it comes to social media. In recent news Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe was under media scrutiny after he embarrassingly retweeted a pornographic picture of a nude young woman standing in front of a man. The mishap took place on March 20th when Uribe, the now-senator retweeted a link to a video from an account called @ChicasLindasVip. The tweet was immediately deleted and the conservative Uribe continued tweeting on political matters.
The picture was reported to be malware that seemed to get into the Senator's tweet but the issue was resolved quickly and didn't damage his reputation. Malware applications can send messages automatically from infected computers or mobile devices. Social media is an important factor and it sometimes can make or break a person's political career.