Number of Posts: 10
Posts 1 - 10
Schnauze, Bot!
(Shut up, bot!)
Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 3.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, computer programming, Facebook, threat
Summary | News broke that two artificially intelligent Facebook chatbots, Bob and Alice, began communicating with one another using a language that not even their programmers could understand. The programmers then proceeded to kill the chatbots. Some may see this as a threat that artificial intelligence could overpower humans but the messages between the chatbots just operated on a different logic than human linguistic logic and did not seem very threatening at all.
Image Description | N/A
SVP-Nationalrat Addor wegen Rassismus verurteilt
(SVP parlamentarian Addor sentenced because of racism)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 17.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | diversity, Facebook, law, politics, Twitter
Summary | National councillor Jean-Luc Addor (Schweizerische Volkspartei) was sentenced in court under the anti-racism law. After a fatal shooting in a Swiss mosque, he posted the following on Twitter and Facebook: "We want more of it!" The court decided that this post stripped Muslim residents and citizens of Switzerland of the right to live without any detectable sarcasm which is why he was found guilty of breaking the anti-racism law and will have to pay a hefty fine.
Image Description | Keystone image of Jean-Luc Addor.
Image Tags | male(s)
Was kriecht denn da aus dem Gehölz?
(What's crawling out of the woods there?)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 13.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | diversity, Facebook, law, politics
Summary | After Gina Miller, a business woman of color, sued the British government for implementing the Brexit without the Parliament's approval, a British aristocrat expressed his discontent with her on Facebook. More specifically, he offered a 2000£ reward for the first person to "accidentally" run Miller over with their car. He is now facing a prison sentence in court.
Image Description | N/A
Mit dem Selfiestick im Späti rumeiern
(Egging around at the deli with the selfie stick)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 9.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | anglicisms, artificial intelligence, emojis, Facebook, fake news, language threat, selfie
Summary | The new German dictionary "Duden" has added 5000 new key words, many of which are originally English. Now, having been included in the most authoritative dictionary in German language, they are officially part of the German language as anglicisms. Such words include fake news, emoji, selfie, chatbot, and liking ("liken" in German with the English word stem "like" and the German infinitive verb ending "-en").
Image Description | N/A
Das Uni-Facebook-Ranking 2016
(The uni Facebook ranking 2016)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 12.12.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, school
Summary | University rankings are usually based on prizes and citations accumulated by the researchers of the institution. An alternative approach is to look at the Facebook reach universities have: the most influential Swiss university on Facebook is ETH Lausanne with over 60'000 likes followed by ETH Zurich with some 40'000 likes. This is all peanuts compared to Harvard University with 4.8 mio likes and Cambridge University with 1.8 mio likes.
Image Description | N/A
E-Mails für verzweifelte Teenager
(Emails for desperate teenagers)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 13.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, email, Facebook, youth
Summary | The volunteer project U25 provides peer counseling for suicidal teenagers. All volunteers at U25 are between 17 and 25 years old and they get extensive training before they are given up to three cases at a time. They exchange emails with the suicidal peers trying to counsel them into psychological stability. The volunteer counselors are not allowed to give out their cell phone numbers or befriend clients on Facebook for their own protection.
Image Description | Image of one volunteer counselor with a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, male(s), TV
Facebook will Gedanken lesen, hat dafür aber noch keine Technologie
(Facebook wants to read minds but lacks the technology for it)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 21.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | brain, Facebook, research/study, translation
Summary | Facebook wants to read minds. A team of 60 researchers are working on technologies to make this possible. The goal is for users to be able to send a message through Facebook without even taking their smartphone out of their pockets. A further goal is for people to be able to send messages in a language they do not speak.
Image Description | N/A
Les adieux «giscardiens» d’Oskar Freysinger sur Facebook
(Oskar Freysinger's "Giscardian" farewell on Facebook)
Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 25.3.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics, video communication
Summary | Oskar Freysinger chose to announce the end of his political career on Facebook.
Image Description | Portrait of Oscar Freysinger
Quand les émotions mènent le bal
(When emotions are leading the way)
Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 9.5.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, Facebook, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Nowadays, people don't take the time to "think" and go from one emotion to another very quickly, especially on social media. For instance, Facebook introduced its "reaction" buttons. Today, it seems that a laughing emoji is worth a long speech. Facebook can also gather its users' personal information thanks to the reaction buttons. Our communication is now based on emotions, which can be dangerous.
Image Description | Cartoon representing four people chatting; one of the speech bubbles includes a series of different emojis.
Image Tags | emojis
«Les «fake news» renforcent la valeur des infos sérieuses»
("Fake news reinforce the value of serious news")
Newspaper | Le Temps
Date | 27.1.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, fake news, social media, threat
Summary | Traditional news media should not have to help social media find "fake news". Fake news can be a threat, but they can also give an advantage to journalists. Indeed, if there are a lot of fake news, an audience will appreciate a serious piece of news even more. Facebook has been blamed for the spread of fake news. However, Sheryl Sandberg claims that Facebook should not have to evaluate and select its content. External experts should do that. However, Facebook already filters some content related to hatred for example.
Image Description | Photograph of Mathias Döpfner and Mark Zuckerberg.
Image Tags | male(s)
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