Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 9
Posts 1 - 9

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

Dieser Hass auf das Netz ist lächerlich

(This hate online is ridiculous)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 29.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, fake news, law, social media, threat
Summary | People are writing books about how the internet and social media are the bane of democracy. Social media have however not created a new genre of bullying and hate lanuguage (just a new medium). It just enables everyone to see every hateful opinion that used to be hidden in peoples homes.The myth of the filter bubble is being spread by politicians and regular people alike but people have always liked to get the news they agreed with. No one subscribes to a newspaper that has the opposite political outlook. Also, contrary to popular belief, wrong doers on Facebook are being held accountable if the cross the line of what is legal and what is not.
Image Description | Getty image of zeros and ones with a pair of eyes.

Staatsschützer auf der Jagd nach Terroristen

(Police hunting for terrorists)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 24.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, social media, threat
Summary | A special few officers in the German police have the task to keep an eye on potential terrorists. That includes assiduously keeping up with their Facebook posts. This way, the police can find out when people plan to take a trip or other suspicious activities. Potential terrorists are also found on Facebook - in interest groups. The German police has hired many speakers of Arab, Urdu, Bosnian, Russian, and French since 9/11 to be able to keep up with the Facebook posts of suspects.
Image Description | Charts showing how islamists have emigrated to Iraq and Syria and how many potential islamists live in Germany.
Image Tags | chart

Hinter dem Hashtag #BlauerWal steckt eine verstörende Geschichte

(A disturbing story hides behind the hashtag #BlueWhale)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, law, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Currently, a man is on trial in Russian courts for supposedly urging 15 teenagers to commit suicide. The case is connected to the #BlueWhale challenge that is said to circulate online on social media. It is a lethal game where one person gives another increasingly self-destructive tasks. Apparently, psychologically fragile teenagers are targeted online.
Image Description | Getty image of a blue whale and images of a man being arrested and in trial with his face pixellated.
Image Tags | male(s)

What The Fuck

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 16.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, politics, social media, Twitter
Summary | The social media employee of the police department Mannheim tweeted out information about a seeming terror attack: a car had hit multiple people in a pedestrian only zone. She had tweeted that the suspect had been arrested. Other Twitter users however started aggressively demanding more information about the suspect, i.e. his race, heritage, religion, etc. The social media worker was shocked at how quickly people on Twitter made this a speculative far right-wing political issue and at somepoint even commented "WTF" in response to one of these tweets at her. Meanwhile people on Twitter were outraged that the police Twitter account would use such language.
Image Description | N/A

"Viele empfinden Freude, wenn sie Angst verbreiten"

("Many feel joy when they spread fear")

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Newspaper | Tagesspiegel
Date | 30.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | law, social media, threat
Summary | The Munich police are present on social media because that is where most of the population regularly checks in. In order to counteract fake news, they make sure to notify the public in case of a dangerous situation and be available for information. Many people share sensationalist stories to spread fear and that is dangerous. While it cannot be prosecuted by the law, a public moral code should be developed to push back such fear-spreaders.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee (police officer).
Image Tags | male(s)

Hasskommentare im Internet

(Hate comments on the internet)

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Newspaper | Wiesbadener Kurier
Date | 30.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, social media
Summary | Hateful comments are hard to avoid online. A local school hosted a workshop about how to deal with hate comments. It is important to counter hateful, polemic comments. Either by debunking them, so demonstrating that they are plain wrong by providing credible facts, by ironizing them, or in extreme cases by getting the police involved. A correlation between a lot of hateful comments about refugees and hate crimes has been confirmed.
Image Description | Twitter icon.
Image Tags | logo, Twitter

So erobern Zahnspangen-Mädchen die Werbewelt

(This is how girls with braces are conquering the world of advertising)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 8.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Instagram, law, marketing, Snapchat, social media, youth, YouTube
Summary | A new breed of celebrities has emerged: social media celebrities or 'influencers' as they are called in marketing. These ordinary youths have millions of followers on Instagram, Snapchat, Musical.ly, or YouTube and are attractive to advertisers, not only because of their large following but because their fans feel personally close to them and are more likely to accept advice from them than from a distant celebrity. It is however still illegal to covertly advertise a product without notifying viewers that they are viewing sponsored content.
Image Description | German Musical.ly stars Lisa and Lena.
Image Tags | female(s)

Facebook und WhatsApp in der EU erst mit 16 Jahren

(Facebook and WhatsApp only after 16 years of age in the EU)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 16.12.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | law, Facebook, privacy, social media, youth
Summary | The EU has renewed the laws tied to data privacy originally made in 1995. The new laws now enable users of online platforms such as Facebook to sue these companies in their home country rather than having to travel. Also, some countries lift the legal age required to join social media from 13 to 16 years old. Young people under the age of 16 are legally not allowed to enter into a contract around data privacy with Facebook.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, smartphone

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