Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the TV show "This Week" that the United States is going to set up Twitter accounts as well as Facebook profiles in other languages in an effort to reach out to the social-media savvy youth in different countries. This is a great way for the US to speak directly to the youth in many countries, some of which are revolting. However, this reaching-out can be dangerous for the United States.
"In its first Twitter feeds in the Iranian language Farsi on February 13, the State Department accused Iran of hypocrisy by supporting the revolt in Egypt but seeking to prevent anti-government demonstrations in Iran." Such a statement can be dangerous for the United States because this statement can be viewed as instigating the youth of Iran to revolt. Such a revolt will lead to further suppression and possibly the death of Iranians.
This combination of social media and politics is going to be a high pressure balancing act for the US. They must balance their idealogical desire to communicate with the youth and to reach out to them with the realpolitik knowledge that their statements can leads to further crackdowns on the youth and possibly death.
In the article, Clinton makes it seem as if the point of doing this is to clarify America's image and explain American policies to the youth of other countries. She continues to explain that she wants the youth to be able to express themselves.
ReplyDeleteSo why was the State Department's first tweet a criticism of Iran?
It doesn't really make any sense to me.
It bothers me sometimes that America must control everything that goes on overseas. Why can't we just worry about our own problems instead of butting into an issue that has nothing to do with us?