US ambassador to UN hosts town hall at Twitter HQ

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is set to talk foreign policy at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco as the State Department ramps up its use of social media.

Ambassador Susan Rice will be fielding questions from around the world today via the online messaging service and from Twitter employees in the live audience.

The town hall also will be broadcast live over the Internet on the video streaming service Ustream.

The meeting comes amid worldwide discussion of the role of Twitter and Facebook in the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

The U.S. State Department also launched an Arab language Twitter feed Wednesday.

Twitter users are being asked to submit questions starting at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time using the hashtag, AskAmbRice.