State Department hosts global Twitter Q&A

On Sudan:

@innercitypress We do not believe that S. #Kordofan is in danger of becoming another #Darfur. Amb. Lyman on the issue: goo.gl/zYSMR

On the U.S. decision to remove troops from Afghanistan by 2014:

@dasghar @Twitter US remains committed to maintaining strong relationships with people of #Afghanistan & #Pakistan long after 2014. #AskUSA

Questions were submitted both before and during the event through the State Department’s main Twitter feed @StateDept and through nine foreign-language accounts. The languages included Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu and Chinese.

The Q & A was designed to strengthen ties and increase exchange between the United States and other countries, according to the State Department press release.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone recently noted the “cozy” relationship the State Department has with Twitter. Although the State Department recently shifted the focus of its digital resources to social media, abandoning static website projects in favor of new media, Stone has a more cautious perspective on the State Department’s use specifically of Twitter.

“You don’t want your technology, you don’t want Twitter, to look like it’s simply a tool for spreading U.S. democracy around the world,” he said Tuesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I maintain that it has to be a neutral technology because there are different forms of democracy.”