Welcome to the age of Hashtag Diplomacy.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, this is what it looks like:
The above tweet is U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki giving a thumbs-up to Ukraine.
It illustrates the State Department’s latest foreign policy strategy, a twitter campaign for #UnitedForUkraine.
However, this Twitter campaign must not be a very formidable or convincing strategy, because it did not take long before the hashtag was “hijacked” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Below is just one example of the various MFA Russia taunts at the Obama Administration:
On Thursday, Jen Psaki responded to the MFA by tweeting:
People were not impressed by this new “hashtag doctrine,” and instead took to social media to ridicule Psaki’s tweet.
At a press briefing on Friday, Psaki explained to Fox News correspondent Ed Henry, “I was highlighting the fact that they have not been following their hashtag with action.”
This Hashtag Diplomacy certainly ushers in a brave new world of social media.