Muslim users who choose to ditch Facebook for the upcoming social network SalamWorld shouldn’t expect to find a Madonna video or discussion of sex anywhere on the site. Salamworld hopes to be a far cleaner version of Facebook, by “filtering out harmful content” and ensuring that its pages “uphold and respect family values".

In a world of increasing opportunities to participate in public debate online via social media, the blogosphere and comments on news sites, the first World Radio Day on 13 February, organised by Unesco, reminds us to celebrate the radio as an unsung hero that is steadily empowering people to access information and – crucially – to respond to what they hear.

As a way to promote travel, Japan will invite influential bloggers and Twitter users from across the globe to visit areas affected by the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis, which occurred last March.Targeting these areas will aim to restore Japan’s dwindling tourism, which dropped by 50 percent in the first three months following the natural disasters.

For all the American fascination with Asia, for all the media focus and the political emphasis on its rising powers, most of us still don't really understand how its societies work, how they're different from us and from one another. As long as we're willing to believe rumors like this one and spread them so widely, there's going to be a lot more that's lost in translation.

Language and educational exchanges have always been a defining feature of the U.S.-China relationship. Meet Jessica Beinecke, a Voice of America journalist who decided that she could leverage all the web 2.0 tools at her disposal to create a show that taught Chinese youth American slang.

What is the role of social media in the modern diplomacy? Yaron Gamburg, the spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Paris and the organizer of the Digital Diplomacy workshop, attempts an answer.