Twitter lands State Department staffers in spotlight

Two State Department employees' innocous tweets while on a visit to Syria raise eyebrows back in Foggy Bottom.

While the government's acceptance of social media is on the rise, stories continue to emerge about missteps and mistakes federal workers make while using it. Today's New York Times reports about two State Department employees, on a visit to Syria, whose casual messages on Twitter raised eyebrows in Foggy Bottom.

The messages themselves were relatively innocuous. “I’m not kidding when I say I just had the greatest frappacino ever at Kalamoun University north of Damascus," one tweet read. What caused the alarm, and a mild reprimand for the employees, was the breezy tone as the pair tweeted from a country that has not had a U.S. American ambassador since 2005.

Still, State Department officials support the use of social media, the Times reports. For more, read the article here.