Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 18
Posts 1 - 10

Doppelte Zeichenzahl bei Twitter? Nicht für Donald Trump

(Doubled number of characters for Twitter? Not for Donald Trump)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 28.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, texting, threat, Twitter
Summary | Twitter has announced that they will be testing a doubled 280 characters limit per tweet with a small test group. The 140 character limit is a remnant of Twitter's text-message related past and they have considered expanding it before, now they finally test it. The expansion of the character limit is meant to apply to all languages except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean because these languages already require less characters to express more content. Multiple Twitter users already panicked on Twitter saying that nothing can stop an international conflict if Donald Trump gets twice as much space on Twitter now. Twitter however confirmed that @realDonaldTrump is not included in the small test group.
Image Description | A screenshot of @realDonaldTrump's profile and a tweet about the new 280 character limit.
Image Tags | female(s), hashtag, male(s), Twitter

Sie strengt sich nicht mal an

(She's not even trying)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 16.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, politics, YouTube
Summary | Angela Merkel was interviewed by German YouTubers and she succeeded in not adapting the the speediness of the internet and keeping her calm, slow speaking voice. To the question what her favorite emoji is, she said that she likes the smiling one. She does not very much identify with the angry emoji.
Image Description | Photograph of Angela Merkel and a YouTuber.
Image Tags | female(s)

Facebook Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Uncover Extremist Posts

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 15.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, censorship, Facebook, politics, threat
Summary | Facebook has been urged by both users and politicians to do more to combat extremist content on their platform. It is Facebook's responsibility to monitor the content they allow so as not to provide a safe space for extremists. Facebook has announced that they plan to employ artificial intelligence to help them flag extremist content.
Image Description | An image of a man and blurry silhouettes standing under a Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo, male(s)

The limits of instant activism

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 28.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | A new book titled "Twitter and Tear Gas" by Zeynep Tufekci is coming out. It discusses the infuence of social media on protest culture. The author has been present in many recent protest movement: Occupy Wall Street, the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, the Tahrir Square protests, and many more. In her book, she concludes that social media help mobilize many people very quickly, as the anti-Trump marches have shown. However, this ease with which people are mobilized to attend a protest make the ties within the protest community looser making it difficult for the movements to overcome issues later on in the process.
Image Description | Image of the March on Washington in 1963.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Is China Outsmarting America in A.I.?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, computer programming, politics
Summary | China is surpassing the US in artificial intelligence research. They succeeded in getting to human-level language recognition a year before Microsoft did. China is also increasing funding for artificial intelligence research massively while President Trump is cutting research funding. The Chinese interent giant Baidu has succeeded in understanding very subtle differences between Chinese dialects.
Image Description | Images of a German AI researcher in China with his machines and students, a Tweet, and an auditorium watching a human playing a board game against Google AI.
Image Tags | female(s), Google, male(s), Twitter

In Europe’s Election Season, Tech Vies to Fight Fake News

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, Facebook, fake news, Google, law, politics
Summary | In light of recent elections, many people are eager to combat misinformation online. Major tech companies like Facebook and Google are being pressured to purdue solutions to stop the spread of fake news on their platforms. Germany even demands fines from Facebook for not complying with federal laws targeted at keeping hate speech and fake news controled. Competitions with rewards of several thousand dollars are asking for programmers to come up with fact-checking software which can weed out false news.
Image Description | Image of a computer programmer working on solutions to flag fake news and a Reuters image of election posters from France.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

What Happened to Who?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, grammar, language threat, politics, Twitter
Summary | More and more politicians have begun replacing the relative pronoun "who" with "that" in sentences like ''people that come with a legal visa and overstay''. Although some dictionaries say this is an acceptable for, the New York Times' style sheet does not condone using "that" instead of "who". It denies the mentioned persons their humanity. This trend is unsurprising considering that our communication is increasingly happening on platforms like Twitter that only allow 140 characters so that we invent loads of abbreviations like "LOL" and "TTYL".
Image Description | Artwork copying Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and a few high-profile Tweets with spelling mistakes.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter

Zuckerbergs Eine-Welt-Laden

(Zuckerberg's one-world-shop)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 21.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics, WhatsApp
Summary | Zuckerberg has written an open letter stating that he wants to create a world community on Facebook with their 2 bio users. Although he does not state it explicitly, it reads as an anti-nationalism manifesto. Facebook plays an important role in politics and so does WhatsApp. Some villages in Kenya have WhatsApp groups including all citizens as well as the politicians.
Image Description | Finger pointing at portraits of women.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s)

"Wir können die Demokratie durch Schweigen verlieren"

("We can lose democracy by keeping quiet")

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 3.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, politics
Summary | Journalist Dunja Hayali is a strong critic of online hate. It is ever present for regular people as cyberbullying and becomes more problematic when political figures like Donald Trump do it. He routinely debases women, muslims, and Mexicans on Twitter and goes unpunished. Hayali has previously sued people for posting hate comments about her online and one of her cyberbullies has just been charged.
Image Description | Portrait of journalist Dunja Hayali.
Image Tags | female(s)

Ignoranz ist Stärke

(Ignorance is strength)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 3.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | fake news, politics, privacy, smartphone, social media, threat
Summary | Kellyanne Conways term "alternative facts" remind of Orwell's fictional language Newspeak which also changes meanings by renaming. Many facts of contemporary life (especially under the Trump administration) remind of dystopian novels "1984" by G. Orwell and "Brave New World" by A. Huxley. We all carry smartphones with us at all times with which we can send information but which also receive and document information about us like our location, who else is in that location, our communications, purchases, and so on. Privacy has become impossible in the digital age.
Image Description | Images and videos of the film "1984" and George Orwell as well as the news clip where Kellyanne Conway mentions "alternative facts".
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), TV

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