The success of Obama, Modi, and others has been particularly good for digital diplomacy, which is the use of new communication technologies to help achieve diplomatic goals. It is hard to even imagine how many countries and heads of state didn't have a Twitter or Facebook account not that long ago.

Despite the widespread adoption of digital diplomacy, few studies have investigated how governments use SNS in order to frame foreign countries and themselves. Self-framing is practiced by countries as part of nation branding activities. 

A hashtag expressing solidarity for the Jewish population of France is gathering traction on Twitter.  #JeSuisJuif began trending shortly after it was revealed a second siege was unfolding at a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Digital diplomacy is therefore part of the state’s attempt to remain relevant and to assert power in the digital space. And while the goals of any one initiative might be lauded (as this one can), we need to view and ultimately assess it as only one component of a wider suite of digital foreign policy actions. Taken as a whole, digital foreign policy is fraught with challenges and hypocrisies.

After the attack on the French satirical weekly newspaperCharlie Hebdo that left 12 dead and 5 injured, Twitter comments are pouring in from around the world.  Many take the form of one of the magazine’s specialties, cartoons.

Governments around the world are using stealthy strategies to manipulate the media.  Censorship is flourishing in the information age. In theory, new technologies make it more difficult, and ultimately impossible, for governments to control the flow of information.