— Domani Spero
Here is Doug Frantz, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs via nextgov.com:
“Social media is an interactive platform, so if you wait to come back to the State Department to get clearance on how to respond to a question over Twitter it will take days if not weeks and the conversation will be over,” Frantz said. “So you want people to be engaged. You want them to be willing and able to take responsible risks…Don’t take a big crazy risk and try to change our policy on Iran, but if you’re behaving responsibly, we can expect small mistakes.”
In many ways, the department is vulnerable to those risks whether or not officials are actively engaging on social media.
Frantz cited the case of a diplomatic security officer and his wife who were expelled from India after making derogatory comments about the country on their personal Facebook pages. “I tell people never tweet anything you don’t want to see on the front page of the Washington Post,” Frantz said.
We should be impressed at this enlightened approach of employees being allowed to afford small mistakes. Except that elements of the State Department continue to harass Foreign Service bloggers who write in their private capacity on blogs and other social media sites. Remember my Conversation with Self About Serial Blog Killers and the 21st Century Statecraft? Different folks get on and off the bus, but this is just as real today.
Harassment, as always, is conducted without a paper trail unless, it’s a PR nightmare like Peter Van Buren, in which case, there is a paper trail. So an FSO-blogger’s difficulties in obtaining an onward assignment has nothing to do with his/her blog, or his/her tweets. Just bad luck of the draw, see? Oh, stop doing that winky wink stuff with your eyes!
Anybody know if there is an SOP on how to intimidate diplo-bloggers into going back into writing in their diaries and hiding those under their pillows until the year 2065? Dammit! No SOP needed?
So, no witnesses, no paper trail and no bruises, just nasty impressive stuff done under the table. Baby, we need a hero —
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Related articles
- Former Postie Doug Frantz named to public-affairs gig at State (washingtonpost.com)
- Secretary Kerry Gets a New Dog, Now a State Dept. Dog is Tweeting, Who Needs the NSA? (diplopundit.net)
- Obama taps Doug Frantz, former Chicago Tribune reporter for State Department post (voices.suntimes.com)
- How Social Media Affects Diplomacy (defenseone.com)
- A Very Personal History Of Getting Fired Over A Blog http://trib.al/AiBpEiS (via @DailyDot)
- Conversation with Self About Serial Blog Killers and the 21st Century Statecraft (diplopundit.net)
