Undoubtedly, the #BringBackOurGirls vibe and heat must have at best fuelled the use of social media, particularly Twitter, to push for social change and global action. The #FeesMustFall (South Africa) and #Justice4Liz (Kenya) trends among others have followed the lead of #BringBackOurGirls.

Facebook’s management has been reluctant to accept responsibility for a flow of fake news via FB that seems to have played a significant role — just like the Kremlin’s cover campaign of bots, hacking and leaks — in last year’s election. If we are determined to go after Russian “bots” and trolls, shouldn’t we also demand more accountability from those who influence greatly the news we are “fed” via social media?

Connected Development (CODE), a Nigerian based advocacy organisation with a mission to empower marginalized communities by improving access to information needed to better local public services, has won the 9th annual $100,000 ONE Africa Award. CODE was founded by Hamzat Lawal and Oludotun Babayemi, who believe government data should be freely available to citizens.

To challenge the "anti-India" narrative in foreign media and to report events from the country's perspective to global audiences, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has set its eyes on a high-tech digital platform. [...] According to the report of the panel, the new platform would aim to have global opinion-makers, global influencers, Indian diaspora, global academia and think tanks among its audience.

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) used to be looked at with skepticism once upon a time, but today India embraces their success, Ambassador of India to UAE Navdeep Singh Suri has said. Speaking at the 35th conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India - Dubai Chapter, Suri said the changing mindsets of diplomats and increasing social media use have aided in showcasing the hard work of NRIs and of diplomatic missions.

It is without a doubt pleasing to see that DFAT is on its way to progressing and further developing its digital diplomacy programmes, however, it is still a long way away from meeting the requirements it needs to influence people around the world, and increase the efficiency of its diplomats and enable them to adapt to a rapidly evolving technology and diplomatic space.