-
State Department Lost in Cyberspace Over New Social Media
Foreign Policy features an article, Lost in Cyberspace, commenting on the silly, stupid, restrictive, likely even unconstitutional new rules under review at the State Department to regulate the social media and online activities of its own employees. The majority of these changes are sort of my fault, given my year-long run of writing, blogging and Tweeting about the lump of coal that our State Department has become. One part of the new rules has even been christened informally as the “Van Buren clause.”Nick Kristoff of the New York Times joined the battle, stating on Twitter that “@NickKristof If the State Dept is really thinking about two-day vetting of tweets, that’s the dumbest idea ever.”
That prompted State Department social media “guru” Alec Ross to respond “@AlecJRoss My team involved in drafting/approving. Not even close to what has been blogged.”
Ross further stated “Updating our social-media guidelines will help make the State Dept MORE open and social media-centric, not less open. It will also make us faster.”
Oh Really?
Is Alec Ross’ claim is true or false? I have seen a draft copy of the new rules for diplomats’ social media regulation. Here’s a diagram from that draft. Please take a look and decide for yourself whether State’s new rules will make the organization more open, faster and social media-centric:
As for the question of State taking five days for blog posts and two days to review diplo-Tweets, here is the relevant section of the draft rules:
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of the Department of State, the Department of Defense or any other entity of the US Government. The Department of State does not approve, endorse or authorize this blog or book. Follow us on Twitter!
Recent Comments
Leave A Comment
Buy the Book:
Buy the eBook:
Rich Bauer said...
1What about e-mails ridiculing State’s birdbrain policy on Tweeting?
12/13/12 5:50 PM | Comment Link
john brown said...
2OMG — all this bureaucratic BS coming from the prepotente SM “guru” who proclaimed: “The 21st century is a really terrible time to be a control freak.” (see http://johnbrownnotesandessays.blogspot.com/2012/12/on-strategic-communication.html)
12/13/12 8:35 PM | Comment Link
State Department Lost in Cyberspace Over New Social Media | We … | Web Tech News said...
3[...] excerpt FROM: http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2012/12/13/state-department-lost-in-cyberspace-over-new-social-media/ [...]
12/14/12 3:28 AM | Comment Link
Eric Hodgdon said...
4“”Van Buren Clause”"
Accept praise whenever it shows up.
Good or bad, it’s a matter of spin.
As a Raiders fan of the late 60s on, many NFL rule changes were named after those players.
As long as you gain some fame, you rise above the rest as a shinning beacon of light, or perhaps a shinning beacon of darkness.
Standing on a pillar, beaming hope to all, you become immortalized. Just don’t get carried away.
12/14/12 5:02 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
5quote “It will also make us faster.” unquote
Says the snail to the tortoise.
12/14/12 6:43 PM | Comment Link
Censorship and social media | Confessions of a Common Man said...
6[...] State Department Lost in Cyberspace Over New Social Media [...]
12/15/12 4:47 PM | Comment Link