As it stands, the international coalition is far from winning the information war against the Islamic State. Its air strikes may be squeezing the group in Iraq and Syria and killing many of its leaders, but that has not halted the self-proclaimed caliphate’s ideological momentum. 

Terrorist groups may now have a harder time using Twitter as a platform for radical activities. For years, terrorists groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda have used social media sites including Twitter and Facebook, to spread extremist messages, recruit followers, and call on sympathizers in the West to commit acts of violence at home.

Over the last few years we’ve been treated to a number of “Facebook revolutions,” from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to the squares of Istanbul, Kiev and Hong Kong, all fueled by social media. But once the smoke cleared, most of these revolutions failed to build any sustainable new political order, in part because as so many voices got amplified, consensus-building became impossible. Question: Does it turn out that social media is better at breaking things than at making things?

Representatives from major tech firms Google, Facebook and Twitter have denied their digital platforms are "instrumental" in spreading terrorist ideology across the internet and stressed a firm commitment to combating online crime. 

Ever wondered which world leader is most followed on Facebook, or Twitter? Should we care? Well, it would seem that the explosion of social media in the last few years and its ability to reach previously inaccessible audiences has not escaped the attention of government leaders.

The study, World Leaders on Facebook, is Burson-Marsteller's latest research into how world leaders, governments and international organisations communicate via social media. Over the past eight years, Facebook has emerged as the platform of choice for world leaders and governments to engage with their constituents. 

Recent years have seen a growing academic interest in the migration of MFAs (foreign ministries) to social media. However, the majority of digital diplomacy studies tend to focus on the activities of Western and North American MFAs. This Euro- and American-centric approach fails to recognize the fact that digital diplomacy is now a global phenomenon.