Story highlights Moira Whelan: It was my job at the State Department to understand America's role in the global social media landscape.

Extremists everywhere are learning a lot about what they can do in their own countries from this election, writes Whelan.

Moira Whelan is a partner at BlueDot Strategies in Washington, DC. She previously served in senior strategic communications positions at the Department of State, US Agency for International Development and the Department of Homeland Security. She is supporting Hillary Clinton for the presidency. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

Moira Whelan

(CNN) It's easy to make fun of Donald Trump's lack of sophistication on "the cyber." In the first debate, instead of offering a smart approach on the likely hack of DNC emails by Russia, he turned his attention first to a hacker on a bed who weighs 400 pounds, then to ISIS and then to his own 10-year-old son.

But the fact is that when it comes to what extremists do online, Trump knows exactly what he's doing, and around the world he is a model.

Until this summer, it was my job at the State Department to understand the global social media landscape so we can make sure America's message resonated.

We went to work every day knowing that in the Middle East, it wasn't uncommon for a Western-educated businessman to believe wild conspiracy theories that the US had staged the 9/11 attacks. In Europe, we watched as suspicion of US policies rose with the growing reach of RT -- the Russian media empire. To be sure, we set the global standard in terms of social media outreach and engagement through our embassies, often besting the efforts of our host countries. But as extremists moved into the global discourse online, the challenge increased.

Social media has amplified the ability of one voice to have disproportionate influence on a conversation -- a new global conversation that is democratizing how people see world events. Information moves quickly. It's first-hand. It's personal. When used for the forces of good, we end up with the likes of Malala Yousufzai or global efforts to #bringbackourgirls