Public-facing social media tools give leaders from small countries the ability to magnify their power and influence, according to Alec Ross, who served as senior advisor for innovation to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

There’s also been potentially catastrophic damage to the West’s influence and credibility. The US is accused of over-prioritizing and withdrawing attention and resources from Eastern Europe; it’s an open question whether the EU is an effective foreign policy actor at all. 

Users started a heated hashtag battle after Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged fire across the Kashmir Line of Control (LoC).  The recent violence forced tens of thousands of villagers from both sides of the LoC to flee their homes and has resulted in at least 14 civilian casualties.

With the widespread filtering, even blocking, of both traditional media Internet sites and social media sites by the Chinese government , Chinese-Americans have been finding other ways to keep tabs on the pro-democracy demonstrations taking place in Hong Kong.

The US State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) is conducting public diplomacy, not information warfare against the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist organizations by contesting the space of digital communication and challenging extremist propaganda, the CSCC coordinator told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

The U.S. State Department is the same body that it has always been: handling relations between nations, maintaining peace and balancing tense situations around the globe.  But one office is doing that in a new way.  Moira Whelan is the deputy assistant secretary for digital strategy.  “It’s digital diplomacy,” she told the Centre Daily Times in an interview.

The Twittersphere and social media is abuzz in the Arab-Muslim world, this time over what conservative clerics say is a controversial practice of hajj pilgrims to Mecca taking “selfies” with their smartphone devices.