Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 25
Posts 1 - 10

Notwendiger Twitter-Protest oder Vandalismus?

(Necessary Twitter protest or vandalism?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 8.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | A German artist protested Twitter's lax action upon hate comments on their platform by spraypainting hate comments from Twitter on the German Twitter headquarter building. Twitter only deletes 1% of user-reported hate comments. The German justice minister has also gone after social media companies and is threatening with very high financial sanctions if they do not comply with local laws that prohibit hate language.
Image Description | Image and tweets of the protester and of the justice minister.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

SVP-Nationalrat Addor wegen Rassismus verurteilt

(SVP parlamentarian Addor sentenced because of racism)

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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)

Crackdown on Online Criticism Chills Pakistani Social Media

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, misunderstanding, social media, threat
Summary | The Pakistani government has passed a very strict law that prohibits any anti-government or anti-army posts on social media. Some people have already been arrested. They claim that their posts were not criticizing the armed forces and that it was all a misunderstanding. This is a huge issie when people get arrested for trivial tweets.
Image Description | Getty image of a protest.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Twitter Users Blocked by Trump File Lawsuit

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 11.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, politics, Twitter
Summary | President Donald Trump is being sued for blocking users who are American citizens on Twitter on the grounds of violating the First Amendment. Twitter is like a modern-day town hall which the president has chosen to use and he cannot expell people from a public forum. Legally, the case is not very straightforward. Different experts disagree.
Image Description | Donald Trump waving while walking away from an aircraft.
Image Tags | male(s)

Germany Tells Sites to Delete Hate or Pay Up

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, fake news, law, threat
Summary | Germany has the strictest policies when it comes to illegalizing slanderous, threatening, and extremist language from public spaces. Germany has just passed a law that allows them to fine Facebook as much as 57 million dollars if they do not remove offensive content quickly enough from the platform. While some may say this is censorship , German lawmakers claim that respectful online encounters are a necessity for free speech to thrive. Facebook is now working on improving the flagging process for offensive material and are also using artificial intelligence to remove fake news.
Image Description | Blurry man looking at a smartphone with the Facebook logo in the background.
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), smartphone

The Rise and Fall of Yik Yak, the Anonymous Messaging App

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, law, privacy, social media, threat, youth
Summary | The anonymous messaging app Yik Yak became very popular in colleges and schools because it lets people broadcast anonymously to other users near them. The activity on the app has however started to become thretening with college students and children bullying each other and people making bomb threats that have led to multiple evacuations. A feminist group from University of Mary Washington have filed complaint to the University to block Yik Yak on campus because it has been used to harrass and threaten members.
Image Description | An illustration with a face and a smartphone and an image of the creators of Yik Yak.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

A hunt for militants at a key location: the Internet

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 6.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, texting, threat, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube
Summary | The EU's police organization as well as the US government are targeting IS material online in their battle against terrorism. Attempts to intercept communication via encrypted instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have failed. The IS also uploads video and other content to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. These social media platforms report to have deleted hundreds of thousands of entries linken to the IS.
Image Description | Portrait of a high profile IS member.
Image Tags | male(s)

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)

He Tweeted About Chinese Government Corruption. Twitter Suspended His Account.

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 26.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, privacy, Twitter
Summary | A Chinese billionaire has publically denuciated Chinese government officials on Twitter by posting images of documents that evidence corruption. His account was suspended by Twitter for a few hours because the shared documents contained personal information which Twitter usually flags.
Image Description | Portrait of Guo Wengui.
Image Tags | male(s)

Father in Thailand Kills 11-Month-Old Daughter Live on Facebook

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, censorship, Facebook, law, threat
Summary | Since Facebook has enabled its livestream functions many crimes have been broadcasted on Facebook. Facebook still struggles to take such offensive content down. Recently a man livestreamed himself killing his daughter and the recording stayed online for twenty hours. Facebook needs to improve its artificial intelligence mechanism to flag such content faster.
Image Description | Reuters image of people crying.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

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