Twitter finally has a toehold in Israel: The social networking company has retained the services of the public relations firm of Daphna Triwaks, whose Triwaks Public Relations will start representing the company locally this week.
Celebrities and world leaders are drawing attention to the plight of 300 Nigerian school girls kidnapped a month ago by Nigerian terrorists by using the social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rode around Google headquarters last spring in the company's self-driving car, tried on Google Glass eyewear and vowed to keep digitizing the economy in the country he has ruled since 2003.
Social media and new technology have spawned a new generation of digital diplomats. Meanwhile, governments try to defend against social media campaigns.
Considering the month of April alone, the State Department said it was "deeply concerned" about each of these situations: justice in Turkey; peaceful challenges of official Chinese policies; restrictions of freedom in Egypt; a Ugandan raid on a U.S.-funded medical facility; the humanitarian crisis in Burma and certain actions of the Republika Srpska, among other various and diverse issues — many extremely serious.
I had to laugh when I heard about the U.S. Agency for International Development’s botched effort to create a Twitter-like platform for Cuba intended to undermine the communist regime. Even the name — ZunZuneo — to the State Department’s credit, sounded like something cooked up in Silicon Valley, not Foggy Bottom.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has called Twitter “the worst menace to society” and a tool of foreign conspirators. For good measure, he has also accused it of evading taxes.
A tweet by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki Thursday night sparked snarky Twitter responses about the diplomacy of a hashtag – but the tweet really is more evidence of a brewing social media Cold War between the U.S. and Russia.