Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 20
Posts 1 - 10

Names of the Brussels Victims Emerge Online, One by One

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 24.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, social media, texting, threat
Summary | In the aftermath of the Brussels airport terrorist attacks, cell phone service was unreliable so people worried about their loved one's went on social media in search for missing persons. Entire bulletin boards were created on Facebook where people posted pictures of the missing family members and friends. Shortly after, deaths were being published on Facebook and other social media.
Image Description | A Getty image showing the airport evacuation in Brussels and Twitter posts with pictures of missing persons.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter

The Facebook Breakup

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, Facebook, research/study, threat
Summary | Many studies have been published about whether Facebook makes us happy or unhappy. Studies with both conclusions exist. They agree that Facebook notifications can cause a hormone release that boosts feelings of happiness for a moment, like all other addictive substances. Facebook has teams working on solustions on how to deal with accounts of users who pass away or how to assist people with avoiding their ex-partners on Facebook.
Image Description | An illustration of a vacuum cleaner vacuuming a broken heart, a team of designers working at Facebook, motivational posters from Facebook, and a smartphone showing the post-breakup settings Facebook offers.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, text

The big myth Facebook needs everyone to believe

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 28.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, diversity, Facebook
Summary | With its huge number 1.5 billion users, Facebook struggles not to impose American ideologies on the majority of their users, 80% of whom are not from the USA. Facebook claims not to promote culturally specific moral positions but just provides a neutral space for people to connect. This statement has shown to be faulty when Facebook made the mistake to suggest to their Spanish users that bullfighting is controversial enough for it to be reported as inappropriate content. Bullfighting is, however, a federally acknoledges national heritage in Spain so there are definitely American moral judgments being imposed here. Facebook should admit to the fact that they help shape public discourse.
Image Description | iStock photo of a Facebook-like hand symbol holding money and a screenshot of an image posted on Facebook.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s)

Germany springs to action over hate speech against migrants

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 6.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, politics, social media
Summary | Facebook has recently decided to comply with German law rather than their own corporate policies when it comes to hate language on their platform contributed by users from Germany. Germany is very strict about prohibiting hate language against minorities. Critics say this is a step in the wrong direction towards censorship.
Image Description | Protest crowd holding a canvas.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

The Week in Tech: The Next Big Thing, According to Mark Zuckerberg

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 16.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, smartphone, texting, virtual reality
Summary | Facebook is already huge: more than three times as many messages are transmitted over Facebook Messenger than SMS messages at its peak. But Facebook is also hugely significant as a video platform and they are investing much of their resources in developing virtual reality. Apparently, Zuckerberg believes that VR is the next big platform after the smartphone. They are even working with anthropologists to make the body language VR avatars more realistic.
Image Description | An image of Zuckerberg doing a presentation with VR goggles projected behind him.
Image Tags | Facebook, male(s)

The Week in Tech: Facebook Live, a More Civil Reddit and Yahoo’s Odd Deal-Making

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, marketing, politeness, Twitter
Summary | Reddit has for the first time in its existence enabled users to block other users from commenting. This enables censorship of less desirable opinions. Twitter landed the exclusive deal to live stream a football game on their platform, a deal Facebook was initially after since they are better known for their LiveStream service than Twitter. This is a high-profile marketing campaign for Twitter. Also, Yahoo is trying to sell itself.
Image Description | An image of a smartphone showing a livestreamed interview.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone

In the Apple Case, a Debate Over Data Hits Home

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politics, privacy, research/study, smartphone, threat
Summary | Apple's refusal to aide the FBI with breaking into the phone of the San Bernardino attacker has unleashed a political debate among Americans. IT experts as well as lay people report that they have had discussions about the topic with other people, some say they have had fights over Facebook with family members about the issue. Polls show that the American people are hugely divided on the topic: 42% think Apple should cooperate with the FBI while 47% support Apple's stance to protect user privacy.
Image Description | Getty image of a protest crowd showing a man holding up his smartphone with the text: "Don't turn our phones into FBI drones".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text

Tech industry slowly rallies behind Apple in iPhone fight

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Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 19.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, Google, law, privacy, smartphone, threat
Summary | The FBI had issues a court order to Apple to hack into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists. When Apple declined, other tech magnates like Google and Facebook sided with them saying that tech companies cannot be ordered to compromise their customers' privacy by the governement. Allowing this to happen now would set a problematic precedent for the future.
Image Description | Portrait of Mark Zuckerberg.
Image Tags | Facebook, male(s)

Siri, Alexa and Other Virtual Assistants Put to the Test

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, Google
Summary | The five major tech companies now all offer artificial intelligence assistants: Apple with Siri, Microsoft with Cortana, Amazon with Alexa, Facebook with M, and Google. They were all put to the test with a few tasks: find out who is playing in the upcoming Super Bowl, play some music, schedule something one's calendar, book a flight, find out about the traffic situation, and find nearby restaurants and order food. None of the AI assistants did perfectly with the highest score of 3.1 out of 4.0 going to Google.
Image Description | Drawing of the five AI assistants as little robots with name tags and their overall score.
Image Tags | Facebook, Google

Blind Facebook users 'see' photos

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Newspaper | USA Today
Date | 5.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, diversity, Facebook, Instagram
Summary | Facebook has a new function that is meant to make the predominantly visual platforms of Facebook and Instagram more inclusive to people with visual impairments. The new software uses artificial intelligence to tell blind users what is in the images. It is not perfect yet but the image recognition can identify simple things like specific sports, etc.
Image Description | Screenshots of Facebook feeds with the image content captioned.
Image Tags | Facebook

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