An Analysis of MoFA Indonesia’s (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia) Digital Diplomacy Via Twitter during COVID in 2020-2021

Abstract

The dissemination of information is becoming easier and easier due to technological developments and this affects international relations, especially how diplomacy is provided. The presence of social media provides a new place to carry out public diplomacy and this is one of the reasons for the creation of digital diplomacy. Many countries, including Indonesia, utilize social media platforms, such as Twitter, to carry out diplomacy. When COVID struck throughout the entire world and caused many countries to go into lockdown, it became the right time for many countries to improve their digital diplomacy, including Indonesia. Thus, this research sought to analyze the effectiveness of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in using the social media platform Twitter to carry out digital diplomacy. Research has proved that the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made efforts to provide information on topics needed by the audience, but has not interacted maximally with existing audiences and has not put in the maximum effort to expand its digital diplomacy presence.