Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
After Twitter: X and the Future of Digital Diplomacy
November 23, 2023 at 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM
| Location: | 1020 Nicol |
| Cost: | Free |
After Twitter: X and the Future of Digital Diplomacy
In recent years Twitter has become the preeminent platform for digital diplomacy with state officials relying on its services daily to reach audiences, communicate messages, and frame international events. Yet its acquisition by Elon Musk and controversial transformation into ‘X’ raises serious questions over its continued viability as a tool of statecraft. This talk examines the impact and significance of Musk’s transformation of Twitter for digital diplomacy. While the future of Twitter/X remains uncertain, I argue that the changes made thus far signal serious challenges to diplomatic actors, and especially the positive public image or ‘face’ liberal democracies hope to project when using digital platforms.
The discussion focuses on three challenges in particular: the problem of verification and impersonation, the growth of hate speech on the platform, and Twitter/X’s increasingly reactionary politics. Taken together these developments underscore the precariousness of the privately owned infrastructure of digital diplomacy which many scholars and public officials take for granted.