A Syrian refugee is showing Germany's locals and newcomers that the best way to understand each other is through humor. Firas Alshater, a drama student and filmmaker, is the star of a new YouTube video series that explores German society from a refugee's point of view.

On Friday, State Department officials announced that they would revamp their efforts to counter ISIS messaging online — among other ways, by opening a new “Global Engagement Center.” That same day, the President and various high-ranking members of the national security establishment met with representatives from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other Internet powerhouses to discuss how the United States can fight ISIS messaging via social media.

“Welcome to ISIS Land” was in some ways a breakthrough for the U.S. government after years of futility in attempting to compete with the propaganda of al-Qaeda and its off-shoots. The video became a viral phenomenon — viewed more than 844,000 times on YouTube — and a cause of significant irritation to its target. But the minute-long recording also became a flash point in a much broader debate over how far the United States should go in engaging with a barbaric adversary online.

The embittered battle against ISIS is making nations rethink how to approach social media as a weapon of war. Early this month, Britain announced its plans to form a battalion of "Facebook Warriors" in effort to battle ISIS's adept skills of recruiting through the platform, and also Twitter, YouTube, and other websites.

As social media has emerged as a key communications tool, the External Affairs Ministry has come on the top among various ministries and government departments in terms of its presence on digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. 
 

French international news channel France 24 is now broadcast live 24/7 in three languages (English, French and Arabic) on YouTube, the n°1 online video platform.  This agreement allows France 24 to further facilitate accessibility to its three channels and allows all Internet users to watch them in high definition on any type of device.

As the US government rolled out its military response to Islamic State over the summer, its diplomatic arm ramped up another war - confronting the extremist group on the digital battleground.

The embassy of Israel in Tokyo has launched an animated, online series in its latest effort to boost tourism from Japan.  The seven-part show will broadcast on the embassy's official YouTube page.