Two-thirds of embassies are Tweeting

About 70 percent of U.S. embassies are active on Twitter, many of them Tweeting in the local language as well as English , according to a report released Tuesday by the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency advocacy group.

Most of the 121 U.S. embassies on Twitter use the social media tool mainly in broadcast mode, such as linking to press releases and articles, rather than conversation mode, or interacting with people who Tweet at them, Sunlight said.

There are some exceptions, though. The report pointed to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, which replied to one critical Tweeter saying, “sorry you feel that way, happy to talk with you if you like to discuss anything in particular.”

That embassy “also shows instances of policy discussions between individuals and embassy officials,” Sunlight said. “For example, an Egyptian Tweeted ‘America would never want a smooth democratic transition for an Arab country knowing that said nations are anti-Israel.’ The embassy Tweeted back ‘Not true. We think that democratic transition in #Egypt is good for #Egypt, region, United States and whole world.’ ”

Embassies might be more likely to Tweet if Twitter is popular in their host nations, the authors speculated, but said they couldn’t find reliable information on Twitter penetration and Twitter would not share that data.

Embassies in countries that are rated more “free” by the nonprofit Freedom House are slightly more likely to Tweet, Sunlight said.

Among embassies that do Tweet, 99 link to those Twitter accounts on their main Web pages and 10 more link to an ambassador’s personal Twitter account, the report said.

Twitter can be a liability for an ambassador. The report cited U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who was accused of “promoting regime change” in his oligarchic host nation.

The social media site also can be an asset. For instance, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is maintaining an active presence on Twitter and Facebook long after State Department officials shut down the Syrian embassy following major unrest, the report noted.