Japan is a strong target for refugee criticism because of its modest engagement in social media and global communications. Typically, it doesn’t proactively make its case to the world, largely allowing the international press and the Twitterverse to frame its issues for it. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Mark Zuckerberg that social media can show governments where they’re going wrong, and allow heads of state to connect more personably than ever before. During a townhall Q&A at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters, the two leaders talked about the modernization of India and discussed topics from the 40,000 questions and comments submitted by the public. 

The group, led by former U.S. envoy to the United Nations for management and reform issues Mark Wallace, as well as former Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, and others, is hosting a summit on Monday that “will draw more than 100 youth activists and government officials to New York City from dozens of countries,” it says. The efforts are aimed at preventing young people from being lured into extremist ideology, particularly on the Internet.

As it stands, the funding and coordination of America’s soft-power strategy is inadequate. But we know that hard power is not enough, particularly to contest the cyber territory that the Islamic State occupies – for example, by developing a capacity to take down botnets and counter hostile social-media accounts.

President Obama took to Facebook Thursday night to comment on a photo of an Iranian father and son posted by the popular photography blog Humans of New York. The comment had received more than 120,000 "likes" as of Friday afternoon. The photo itself had been liked by nearly half a million people.

The BBC has a fantastic radio documentary and magazine piece on the UK's leading digital diplomat Tom Fletcher (h/t @ukinaustralia). This critique of how US ambassadors attempt to influence online debates points to French Ambassador @GerardAraud as someone who 'does Twitter right'. Russia's game of trolls: how 'digi-kids' and anime is helping President Putin's fight for online supremacy.

The 6th Cultural Communication Forum (CCF) organized by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) held a meeting of leading cultural figures from G20 member countries on the topic "Cultural Combustion in the Smart Age" at The Westin Chosun, Seoul, Wednesday.

June and July were important months in the fight for the rights of of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean women. July 25 was a particularly important date — the customary day of celebration for these women — highlighting the need to recognize the struggles they have faced throughout history. It was also an opportunity to bring to light the injustices unique to women of African descent as opposed to those of men. The combination of gender, race and ethnicity, along with social class has only served to aggravate the oppression they have faced.