Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 7
Posts 1 - 7

The rise and rise of international diplomacy by WhatsApp

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 4.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, privacy, texting, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp diplomacy is a thing: when leaders gather to talk in the same room, they can exchange emojis and other documents to other people without the whole room knowing. WhatsApp is more secure than other government information systems and has been used at the UN and EU headquarters.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of diplomats looking at their phone, screenshot of a WhatsApp chat, photograph of a man holding a phone and a woman standing next to him (both are looking at the phone)
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text, WhatsApp

Merkel says big internet firms 'distort perception': Chancellor demands Facebook and Google make their algorithms public

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 28.10.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, Google, marketing, politics, privacy
Summary | Merkel wants Facebook and Google to be more transparent and reveal the algorithms that select stories people see. She claimed that those algorithms distort our perception of reality. Internet giants don't agree with that; they said that viewers have access to a wide range of opinions.
Image Description | Photograph of Angela Merket speaking at a conference, photograph of the Facebook logo with the reaction buttons, and Twitter logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo, Twitter

Big data’s power is terrifying. That could be good news for democracy

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 6.3.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | fake news, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Big data makes big new innovations possible. It has already been assumed that recent elections were manipulated by fake news targeted to gullable individuals on social media. Other people are looking into options of how big data can be used to improve democracy, for instance the Pirate Party in Iceland.
Image Description | An illustration of hands 'cracking' a computer and an image of female Icelandic politicians from the Pirate Party.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), keyboard

Fighting fake news: societies using technology to search for truth

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 0.0.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, fake news, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Many countries are trying to combat fake news and urging Facebook to find ways of combatting fake news. They influence elections by deceiving people and that is a great problem. It is nearly impossible to identify fake news with a program, it takes a human. Facebook is now allowing users to flag suspicious content, which is then reviewed and if deemed fake, labeled as such and displayed with a lower priority. Fake news are not taken off of Facebook because that would be censorship.
Image Description | Shutterstock images of protesters against fake news.
Image Tags | female(s), text

No, wealth isn't created at the top. It is merely devoured there

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 30.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, social media, threat
Summary | The new rising technology firms like Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber are the new class of rentiers. The do not create anything new, they claim control over goods and services and cash in on transactions made on the platform they provide. That is all they do: provide a platform. It is only profitable because people willingly share content and offer their services on these sites. But these firms also have not invented the technology (internet, computer devices, etc.): that technology was developed with the tax payer's money. So technically they are just selling and reselling already existing goods - like a rentier.
Image Description | Getty image of a protester, an iPhone, the Facebook campus, a bunch of bank signs, and a Mexcan capitalist.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text

Exhausted students 'crying in toilets and breaking down in class' over 'unfair' new GCSE grading system

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 9.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, Facebook, politics, school, threat
Summary | A student has posted a rant about changes to the GCSE exam system making it yet more difficult. She describes how the whole student body has mental health issues since the changes were announced and just how ridiculous the expectations are. Her post has been shared almost 30'000 times by agreeing parents, teachers, and fellow students. Many commenters support her criticism while others show no understanding claiming that tests are meant to be hard.
Image Description | Getty images of someone writing with a pencil, and two images of exam situations, as well as a screengrab of the original Facebook rant.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s), school

The graphic selfies from inside the Swiss parliament

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Newspaper | BBC News
Date | 24.8.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, pornography, sexting, WhatsApp
Summary | Switzerland saw two nude selfie scandals in and around politics this summer. A secretary working in the parlamentarian offices had been tweeting nude selfies taken on the premises. Parlamentarian and city mayor of Baden in Switzerland, Geri Müller, had been sexting with an online friend via WhatsApp, including an abundance of written messages and nude selfies. The Swiss public had been debating whether Müller's #selfiegate should have been newsworthy at all. What ultimately emerges is a double standard: the secretary lost her job within days and the mayor is still representing the Swiss people in parliament.
Image Description | Portrait of Geri Müller, Anthony Weiner, and a Thinkstock image of a hand holding a smartphone presumably taking a selfie.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), selfie, smartphone

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