Young Australians travelling overseas to take up arms with the militant group Islamic State have naively bought into a fictional fantasy fuelled by social media, a human rights activist says.

The campaign asks that people take a picture of themselves, waving the South Sudanese flag; post it on facebook with the hashtag #waveSouthSudan; add reasons why they are proud of South Sudan;  and encourage a friend to do the same.

VOA State Department correspondent Scott Stearns and VOA Kurdish reporter Motabar Shirwani conducted a wide-ranging interview with U.S. Undersecretary of State Richard Stengel about the Islamic State, Ukraine and Ebola.

The digital revolution has had a massive impact on the practice of foreign policy, revealing challenges and opportunities for modern diplomacy. But where is the line drawn between confidentiality and transparency?

One of Britain’s highest-ranking intelligence officials on Tuesday castigated the giant American companies that dominate the Internet for providing the “command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals” and challenged the companies to find a better balance between privacy and security.

A day after President Dilma Rousseff squeaked out a close electoral victory, Brazilian voters vented their frustrations one way they know best: on social media.  Online debates between supporters of the president and her unsuccessful rival Aécio Neves were hostile, in a country with one of the world’s deepest penetration of social-media use.

“It is only when we contest (ISIS') presence online, deny the legitimacy of the message it sends to vulnerable young people and expose (ISIS) for the un-Islamic cult of violence it really is ... that (ISIS) will truly be defeated,” Allen said.