Last Wednesday, Canada officially launched its national Twitter accounts in French and English as part of an integrated diplomacy strategy. (...) It wasn’t long before the first wave of criticism appeared. Not over anything related to international diplomacy. Rather — because this is Canada — the brouhaha was over language.

Twiplomacy or ‘twitter diplomacy’ was at its peak with South Asian leaders taking to the social media platform as the 18th Saarc Summit kicked off in the Capital on Wednesday.

Canada’s foreign affairs department has launched a Twitter account for Canada. And it’s a big hit.

Tweeting in Cuba isn’t like tweeting in most other places in the world. With no easy access to Wi-Fi or 3G and no broadband, it’s not simple to get online. Only about 5% of people in Cuba use the internet. I’m one of the lucky ones, because the British embassy provides me with internet via satellite so I can blog, tweet or post to my heart’s content.

Few hours before making it official from the US side, Modi had hit his favourite Twitter informing the public about his invitation to US President Obama, saying: “This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest.”

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II sent her first ever tweet during a visit to a museum Friday, signing it “Elizabeth R” - and even removing a glove to post it.  Another tweet on the same account shortly afterwards said that the previous one was “sent personally by The Queen”, adding its own hashtag for the event -- #TheQueenTweets.

Fearing contagion, Jordan has announced that it will not tolerate any open activity, recruitment or support for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Public-facing social media tools give leaders from small countries the ability to magnify their power and influence, according to Alec Ross, who served as senior advisor for innovation to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.