Undiplomatic Tweets

If you see tweets by federal officials become more bland and policy-focused in the coming days, weeks and months, the explanation lies in this New York Times report on a delegation of tech companies to Syria led by two State Department officials in June. The officials, Alec J. Ross and Jared Cohen, have won renown for their advocacy -- and use -- of social media tools like Twitter to advance the cause of diplomacy.

But certain members of Congress aren't thrilled about Twitter's often-breezy tone, especially as applied to a country like Syria, with which the United States has long been at odds. In this case, a tweet by Cohen that he'd "had the greatest frappacino ever at Kalamoun University north of Damascus" and one by Ross noting that in a blow for "creative diplomacy" Cohen had challenged a Syrian minister to a cake-eating contest were deemed beneath diplomatic dignity.

Most official government Twitter feeds are fairly bland. (The official State Department feed certainly succeeds at straightforward innocuousness.) Now look for individual feeds by federal officials to follow the same tone -- or disappear entirely.