On September 2, 2017, U.S. authorities seized the buildings of the General Consulate of the Russian Federation in San Francisco and the Russian Trade Mission in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously, Russian representatives were denied access to the rented premises of the Russian Trade Mission in New York...Despite emotional coloring and personification, this situation suggests a “tit for tat” of diplomatic expulsions. The diplomats of both countries should know where to draw the line.

Once a crisis begins to unfold, confusion about the nature, severity, and possible implications of the event is the immediate consequence to affect both authorities and the public. Ironically, this outcome is not prompted by the shortage of information about what is going on, but rather by the abundance of reports on social media channels, most of them reflecting individual reactions to the event, often times with little factual evidence to support them.