As part of its initiative to harness more digital technology for diplomacy, the US State Department will be taking questions via Twitter in 10 different languages, and answering them during a press briefing every Friday for the month of January.

The State Department traditionally has daily briefings that allow for some questions from the press, but now they’re opening up the floor to citizens of the world.

They will be taking questions from the Department’s 10 official Twitter feeds, which include the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu.

These questions will be answered every Friday during the afternoon briefing for the duration of the month of January. There’s no word on whether they will continue this endeavor if it proves successful, or whether this is a one-month only offer.

This initiative is part of a larger effort by the Department to embrace technology. January is being hailed as the US Department of State’s 21st Century Statecraft month, and will see a variety of uses of social media and other digital tools by the Department to enhance public diplomacy.

If you want to get your Twitter question answered live during a briefing this month, simply tweet the hashtag #AskState to any of the following Twitter accounts listed below:

@StateDept (English)

@USAbilAraby (Arabic)

@USA_Zhongwen (Chinese)

@USAdarFarsi (Farsi)

@USAenFrancais (French)

@USAHindiMein (Hindi)

@USAemPortugues (Portuguese)

@USApoRusski (Russian)

@USAenEspanol (Spanish)

@USAUrdu (Urdu)

And, just in case you miss your question being answered, the Department will be recording video clips of the answers and posting them on its YouTube channel.

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