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The United States government has quietly gathered a collection of tech and media superstars to advise on propaganda and public diplomacy. Just think of the new Broadcasting Board of Governors' Commission on Innovation as the Justice League of Public Diplomacy...

The Pentagon on Monday launched a new campaign — in bursts of 140 characters per message. The Defense Department (@DeptofDefense) held its first Twitter town hall, and the nearly hour-long session addressed questions from "don't ask, don't tell" to the Middle East to cyber security.

This week the China-watching twitterverse was surprised to discover that Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, was now tweeting. That the editor of the Global Times, an “angry government mouthpiece” that supports China’s policy of Internet censorship...

During the past several years, Chinese audiences have flocked to see American movies such as Kung-Fu Panda, much to the alarm of China’s political leadership, which has recently made clear that it is not inclined to surrender any terrain on the global cultural battleground.

While Twitter and other social media had become a megaphone disseminating information about the uprisings to the outside world, Marks said, "a comprehensive study of Tweets about the Egyptian and Libyan uprisings" found that more than 75 percent of people who clicked on embedded Twitter links related to the uprisings were from outside the Arab world.

The State Department on Monday launched a new Turkish-language Twitter account, its 10th official feed designed to spread the word about US foreign policy in a language other than English. The Turkish account is @ABDTurk and will be used by the U.S. Embassy in Turkey.

Officials at Sweden's tourism board agreed to hand over control of their @sweden Twitter feed in December to a different Swedish citizen each week. The project -- billed as "the world's most democratic Twitter account" -- has so far been hugely popular, featuring a female priest, an advertising executive and an organic sheep farmer.

When Secretary Clinton announced the launch of the first-ever virtual embassy for Iran, she made clear that the U.S. Department of State wants to communicate directly to the people of Iran and to support a more direct and robust engagement between our people, emphasizing the role of new media platforms to reach younger and more tech-savvy audiences.

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