The techniques used in commercial social media campaigns don't always translate to the field of international development. Global development is a niche sector, so its communicators don't need tens of thousands of followers to be successful. Even for commercial outfits, a followership of 30,000 is not in itself an indication that the campaign is being effective: what if only 15% of those followers are from the target audience? 

More than 20 members of the woman's family stoned her to death for the "crime" of "dishonoring" her family by choosing to marry someone she loved rather than a husband her family had chosen. Social media immediately picked up on the horrific and very public killing. #Farzana became a hashtag that provoked a conversation about the crime of so-called "honor killings" and society's tolerance and the police's alleged indifference to it.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has taken steps to reach the country's powerful youth constituency since his election in June 2013, using Twitter and talking about the importance of the Internet in an effort to connect. The country has a young, tech-savvy population, more than half of which is under the age of 30, making it an important voice in determining the country's future.  But despite Rouhani's outreach, using the Internet remains difficult in Iran amid government repression.

The IDF Spokesperson on Saturday posted on its Twitter account a supposed image of some of the 100,000 missiles Hezbollah has aimed at Israeli cities – but there's a problem or two with it. The missiles shown are not to be found in Lebanon, or even in Syria, and only one of them could remotely be said to illustrate any threat posed against Israel. The photo, which appears to be from AFP/Getty Images, was used on an IDF Spokesperson tweet marking 14 years since the army withdrew from Lebanon. "#Israel troops left #Lebanon 14yrs ago.

A global event challenging the agricultural behemoth Monsanto’s efforts to dominate the world food supply is taking place across the globe as millions of anti-GMO activists join forces against the biotech giant.“The 3rd global March Against Monsanto (MAM) is expected to be the biggest one yet. With 43 countries on 6 continents, MAM has coordinated 366 official events, with countless others not officially registered.”

In every large democracy of our time, little seems to be left to chance, with both national and trans-national laws and policies relating to every aspect of our life. The Internet however, is still much debated and a sort of grey area.