The US State Department has launched an experimental unit to fight al-Qaeda ideologists on Twitter across the web. But can it actually stop terrorism?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has seemingly waded into the debate surrounding the arrest of a group of Iranians for recreating a tribute to Pharrell Williams’ Happy video. On Wednesday a Twitter account operated by Rouhani’s aides tweeted: "#Happiness is our people's right. We shouldn't be too hard on behaviors caused by joy." The tweet is believed by many to reference the incident, which was branded “a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity” by Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia.

With the collapse of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of young people across the Middle East are talking reconciliation online, a former Israeli peace negotiator and founder of the movement said Monday. The Facebook group, which has backing from celebrities including Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Sharon Stone, has attracted almost 500,000 followers from around the region, including youths in the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Muslim countries that have no relations with Israel.

Chinese web users scoffed and Beijing expressed outrage at the May 19 announcement of a U.S. indictment of five Shanghai-based army officers on charges of hacking and economic espionage. In an uncharacteristically speedy response posted to the Foreign Ministry website within 90 minutes of the US announcement, spokesman Qin Gang called the accusations "absurd" and "purely ungrounded." Qin demanded that U.S. authorities drop the case immediately and added that Beijing would be suspending its participation in Sino-U.S.

Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who swept the country’s election results on Friday, has started to appear decidedly more prime ministerial by the day. Over the past few days, he has taken to Twitter to thank foreign leaders for their support, but the order in which he thanked them and one notable omission, later rectified, was more interesting than the content of the tweets themselves.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that the cyber world should be regarded as an opportunity and not a threat.  The Iranian president said that new communications technologies, such as satellite channels, the internet, and mobile phones, should not be considered a threat to the Islamic beliefs of young people. Rouhani also stated that the era of delivering messages through “one-way tribunes” and “one-way speakers” has come to an end, noting that in the modern world, the more widely messages are circulated, the more effectual they are.

The BJP clean sweep at the national elections found an echo on Twitter. On counting day Narendra Modi began with 39.87 lakh followers and ended with 40.92 lakh, breaking a record of sorts in the number of followers on Twitter any individual has pulled in on a given day. The tally now stands well over 41.1 lakh.This may have much to do with the BJP's early debut on Twitter and the effective use of social media that went towards building the sort of marketing campaign rarely seen in Indian politics.

By providing an alternative to mainstream media, the internet can increase mutual understanding. Although today China-U.S. relations are not bad, the relationship remains very complicated. There are many factors affecting China-U.S. relations, some of which are very serious. This is why President Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of a “new model of major country relationship”