COVID-19, Social Media Adoption, and the Future of Digital Diplomacy in Africa

Abstract

The challenges brought by COVID-19 challenged all sectors of society, including public diplomacy. Public diplomacy through the adoption of social media and other digital platforms was transformed into mainstream digital diplomacy. The chapter sought to understand how social media use by diplomats during COVID-19 forced or allowed the introduction of digital diplomacy as a necessary intervention. Using the desktop review of literature, adjoining on systematic literature review was adopted as the research method. The objectives were to investigate how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic affected digital diplomacy in Africa, and what are the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the practice of digital diplomacy in Africa. The research identified four themes, these were: the state of African digital diplomacy; social media adoption during COVID-19 in Africa; corona virus and vaccine diplomacy; and anti-corruption public digital diplomacy. The study revealed that African digital diplomacy, however, is closely comparable to its developed countries counterparts.