Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 21
Posts 1 - 10

Schamlosigkeit hilft

(Shamelessness helps)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 10.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, social media, spelling, threat
Summary | A German TV show host has just responded to a hate comment on social media by mimicking the commenter's faulty spelling and reversing his accusations and insults. The commenter, confronted with an imitation of himself, apologized. A German artist sprayed hateful tweets on the Twitter building to show how much illegal hate speech they have not managed to remove. This strategy of shaming is nothing new in disciplining members of a community but it seems to work.
Image Description | Portrait of the TV show host.
Image Tags | female(s)

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.

Heute: Lügen

(Today: lying)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 11.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, fake news, social media, threat
Summary | With so much information online lies exist and prosper alongside facts. It is difficult to tell them apart so maybe the computers should be in charge of marking facts green and non-facts red. People would not trust them even if they did. Fake news and lies feed hate online on social media.
Image Description | N/A

Das ist der wohl obszönste Username im ganzen Netz

(This is probably the most obscene username on the internet)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 13.6.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | censorship, politeness, privacy, research/study, social media, threat, word/writing
Summary | Many news media sources now tend to quote opinions from social media users rather than do polls out in the street. It is not uncommon to see an opinion of the "common people" in a newspaper article quoting an obscure social media username. The difference to the traditional technique of asking people on the street is that journalists needed to obtain consent of the people to quote them. One woman has now found a way to avoid being quoted without her consent: she chose a very obscene username including four words which are inappropriate enough so that they would have to be censored in a newspaper.
Image Description | N/A

Erst Kommentare, dann Brandsätze

(First comments, then arson)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 11.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, gender, social media, threat
Summary | Hate language online is huge. People seem to have no shame, even when they cannot hide behind an anonymous username. Even personal social media accounts post horrendous statements bordering on illegal content. Most hate language online comes from men. Many newspaper websites have deactivated the comment sections because they cannot handle the content of it.
Image Description | N/A

Der Shitstorm vom Fließband

(Shitstorms from the conveyor belt)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 3.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Social bots are becoming more frequent on social media. Some are quite believable, other not so much. Nevertheless they can reak quite some havoc on social media. They can be vocal supporters of an opinion and voice that opinion very stongly all the time, like in a shitstorm. They are responsible for much of the hate language online. Social bots can be assumed to have influenced political elections as they were used to push an opinion. The technology is similar to that of chatbots but they are designed to be assisting humans through conversational orders.
Image Description | N/A

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)

Erwischt!

(Gotcha!)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, social media, threat
Summary | A marathon detective has been investigating multiple major marathons to make sure no one cheats. He shockingly realized that very many people take illegal shortcuts. He explains it with the social pressure to post about personal victories on social media. Social media seduces people to show off, even if they have to cheat to be able to show something off.
Image Description | N/A

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