For much of the 20th century, the British Royal Family captured the world’s attention. Thanks to Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 Coronation attracted an estimated 227 million viewers from across the world, a record at that time. Princess Diana’s wedding was viewed by 750 million people, while her funeral was viewed by 2.5 billion viewers.... Continue Reading →
How MFAs Celebrated International Women’s Day Online
Comment: This post about International Women’s Day was written from a man’s perspective. It is thus highly likely that the analysis in this post would benefit from the insight of women. I encourage women readers to comment on this post and offer their own analysis of the tweets analyzed below. This insight will be integrated... Continue Reading →
UAE Ambassador to Israel Makes Positive #Digital Impression
On the 17th of February 2021, the UAE’s Ambassador to Israel took to Twitter for the first time. In a tweet published in both English, Hebrew and Arabic, the Ambassador promised to strengthen ties between Israel and Emirates by ‘fostering peace, understanding and prosperity among our people and across the region’. Within 48 hours of... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Must Read List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- The biggest technology failures of 2020 (MIT Technology Review)Misinformation dropped dramatically a week after Twitter bans Trump and some allies (The Washington Post)Inside a Pro-Huawei Influence Campaign (The New York Times)Facial... Continue Reading →
Monday’s #MustRead List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Auschwitz survivor, 92, takes over @Israel for Holocaust Remembrance Day (Times of Israel) Satellite boom attracts technology giants (BBC News)A network of Twitter bots has attacked the Belgian government's Huawei 5G... Continue Reading →
The Iran Deal is already being negotiated on Twitter
Digital platforms are now increasingly used for diplomatic signaling. MFAs and diplomats often use Twitter to comment on crises, address other nations’ policies and even criticize state action. They do so knowing full well that their Twitter accounts are monitored by their peers, and influential social media users such as journalists and blogger. Already in... Continue Reading →
National Memories and Holocaust Remembrance
January 27th marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Notably, this day carries little significance in Israel. There are no national ceremonies or moments of silence to commemorate the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Israel has a dual relationship with the Holocaust. On the one hand, the Holocaust is commonsensical to Israelis. For... Continue Reading →
Monday’s #MustRead List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- For Facebook, It’s All About the Bottom Line (Foreign Policy)Parler is gone for now as Amazon terminates hosting (The Verge)Trump Is Banned. Who Is Next? (The Atlantic)Can Regulation Douse Populism’s Online... Continue Reading →
Algorithms as Audiences
Diplomacy’s digitalization has advanced at a remarkable speed. MFAS, once defined as archaic institutions who lack the communicative culture to adapt to new technologies, have launched virtual Embassies, created smartphone applications, built blog sites, established big data units and have taken to writing their own algorithms. While not all digital initiatives have ended in a... Continue Reading →
Monday’s #MustRead List
Each week, I publish a list of interesting articles, essays and reports that may be of interest to the digital diplomacy community. This week- Subtle cyberattack met by swift cybersecurity acts (The Jerusalem Post)5 challenges to the new EU digital rulebook (Politico)Queen Elizabeth will deliver her Christmas Day message via Alexa this year, if you... Continue Reading →