On Friday, State Department officials announced that they would revamp their efforts to counter ISIS messaging online — among other ways, by opening a new “Global Engagement Center.” That same day, the President and various high-ranking members of the national security establishment met with representatives from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other Internet powerhouses to discuss how the United States can fight ISIS messaging via social media.

The Obama administration on Friday announced an overhaul of its efforts to respond to online propaganda from the Islamic State after months of acknowledgments that it had largely failed in its attempts to counter extremist recruitment and exhortations to violence on social media. The administration has emphasized that it needs the assistance of some of the nation’s biggest technology companies, and a group of top White House and national security officials flew to California on Friday to plead their case with executives.

Twitter has become the new soapbox of diplomats. It’s even given rise to a new lexicon — twiplomats practicing twiplomacy.  Indeed, the website Twiplomacy writes that Twitter has become the “channel of choice for digital diplomacy between world leaders, governments, foreign ministries and diplomats.”

In the areas of foreign policy and diplomacy, technology has brought about a tremendous amount of change. [...] In our point of view, the impact of breakthrough technologies on foreign affairs can be seen through accelerating transformation in five significant areas: security, institutions, participation, dialogue, and leadership.