According to law enforcement officials, ISIS and other terrorist organizations are increasingly adept at using social media to recruit from abroad.  Social media companies like Facebook and Twitter face complex criticism.

Thousands of Saudis have poured into the palace of King Salman who acceded the throne after the death of his half-brother Abdullah last week.  But thousands of others have pledged their allegiance to the new ruler online, taking advantage of social media networks.

President Obama, in India for a state visit, was chided by local press after he was spotted chewing gum during Monday’s Republic Day parade, which celebrates the day that India’s 1950 constitution went into effect.

Last week, the Jerusalem Post announced a new joint venture between the Israeli Prime Minister's office and StandWithUS, a nonprofit organization, aimed at training university students on how to use social media to educate the world about Israel. 

The Instagram controversy is the latest example showing that pageants occur "in a broader international context," Trisko Darden said in a Guardian column last week.

In the realm of influencing relations between nations, digital media has suddenly unpinned the power to communicate from the almost exclusive control of the state. Thanks to digital platforms such as social media, state actors must now compete with non-state actors for a voice in the international arena as well as for legitimacy in the eyes of the public—including their domestic one.

While Spaso House is not neglecting digital diplomacy under Ambassador Tefft, the online buzz generated by Ambassador McFaul in Russia certainly seems to have dissipated in a big way.