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‪Aiming at introducing this special issue of Questions de communication, this article describes first how the development of the internet has given rise, in the early years 2000, to a number of studies that praise the participatory virtues of the new digital technologies within the field of public diplomacy. It then underlines the need to break with these celebratory views and shows how, together, the papers comprising this special issue help to understand some of the ways in which the rise of the Web and of the digital social networks have contributed to changes in the strategies and practices of the media used as public diplomacy channels.‪