France and the United States have long been engaged in a friendly war for global prestige and pre-eminence -- especially in the technological and cultural spheres. It is not entirely irrelevant to situate this latest French obstacle to American technological and cultural influence within the longstanding animosity between France and the U.S. in these spheres.

Given its lesser standing in terms of international public opinion compared to the West, China should strive for the right to speak in public diplomacy in cyberspace, strengthen the universal participation of the public diplomacy on the Internet, formulate a public diplomacy strategy for cyberspace and proactively build up a national brand.

Facebook announced that it would be putting together a global team of quasi-diplomats, called "policy directors," to represent the company in various countries around the globe. "You literally build a foreign service... to translate the policy environment back into the company."

McHale's most valuable contribution may have been to structurally reinforce public diplomacy within the State Department...she took a big step toward increasing the centrality of public diplomacy in American foreign policy.

When Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt couldn't reach his counterpart in Bahrain by traditional means of communication, he turned to Twitter...Many politicians and diplomats worldwide have already embraced social media as a tool to communicate with the public...

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who became a public voice in the Egyptian uprising, said that social networking played a vital role in the rebellion and will continue to do so in many other regions throughout the world.

The news transmitted by the U.S. government to Cuba via Radio/Television Martí is keeping pace with the times in its use of social networks and multimedia platforms. Internet, Facebook, Twitter and text messaging are the latest media being used to aid the free flow of news to the island.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Internet leaders gathered in Paris to work with governments and share fairly the benefits of a revolution he compared to the discoveries of Columbus, Galileo and Newton.