For government agencies and NGOs that work to foster peace [...] video games are the obvious next step in the fight to reach new audiences and change minds. […] And quite apart from the large, established game market in North America, Europe, and Asia, the gaming population in some conflict zones around the world is large and growing.

The New York-based Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280, a Silicon Valley nonprofit, have teamed up to launch a program that will collect donated USB flash drives, load them with content ranging from "South Korean soap operas to Hollywood films to Korean-language versions of Wikipedia to interviews with North Korean defectors," and smuggle them into the North for ordinary North Koreans to enjoy.

India's telecoms regulator ruled Monday that service providers must charge the same price for all content, dealing a crushing blow to "Free Basics," a Facebook initiative that had come under withering criticism from tech activists. "Free Basics," formerly known as Internet.org, offered limited Internet access to consumers who cannot afford a broadband connection or smartphone data plan.

German policymakers continue to believe that political and economic means of influence are more effective than violence, implying further development of soft-power tools, including digital diplomacy. They are also eager to develop more “networked” national and European foreign policies that take into account the activities and possible contributions of non-state actors.

Emojis are a nearly universal language – symbols that speak clearly across cultures. But Finland has created a set that has a more singular focus: putting a clever and fun spin on the culture and identity of the country.

Social media is changing "business as usual" for governments, opening up democratic processes, delivering services both to understand and surveil constituents, managing threats and conducting direct diplomacy. Even so, adoption of social media is slow and uneven, with vast differences both between and within states. As more and more governments move towards e-government, their use of social media will grow.