Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8

Facebook’s censorship of Aboriginal bodies raises troubling ideas of ‘decency’

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, diversity, Facebook, gender, law
Summary | Facebook does not mind showing Kim Kardashian’s cleavage, but it didn't allow images of topless Aboriginal women. Major social network platforms are led by capitalism, and although they claim they want to create global and equal platforms, not all stories are treated the same way. As a result, On Facebook, images of famous women naked are okay whereas images of other women around the world are deemed “inappropriate”.
Image Description | Photograph of four Aboriginal women
Image Tags | female(s)

Facebook's 'ethnic affinity' advertising sparks concerns of racial profiling

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 22.3.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, Facebook
Summary | Facebook's new feature called “racial affinity" allows marketers to taget specific groups. The feature allows advertisers to categorize users in terms of their interests, but it also categorizes them in terms of related racial groups. The tool is only available in the US and is seen as a tool allowing advertisers to segregate by race.
Image Description | Screenshot of the movie Straight Outta Compton.
Image Tags | male(s)

Headscarf emojis not an option – but teenage girl fixes that

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.9.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | Rayouf Alhumedhi is a 15-year-old teenage girl who lives in Germany. After noticing that there was no hijab emoji to represent Muslim women, she sent a proposal to Unicode. When she was asked why she wears a headscarf, she said that she actually feels liberated; she can choose what she wants to cover, and this way people see her past her beauty and for her knowledge.
Image Description | Five emojis representing different options for the "headscarf emoji"
Image Tags | emojis, female(s)

Google proposes new set of female emojis to promote equality

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 11.5.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, gender
Summary | Google proposed new emojis representing gender diversity. The new set of emojis includes for instance female engineers, chemists, plumbers, and farmers. Millions of people around the world use emojis, so it is important to represent people accurately.
Image Description | Images of the new set of female emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s)

New emojis to include breastfeeding, a hijab and the lotus position

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | 56 new emojis will be released (e.g. bearded man, sandwich, face vomiting, woman wearing a hijab). However, there is still a lack of redhead emojis.
Image Description | Different versions of the hijab emoji, and screenshots of tweets about the hijab emoji and the lack of ginger emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, Twitter

Emoji diversity: how 'silly little faces' can make a big difference

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, research/study
Summary | San Francisco hosted the first Emojicon conference, where people could participate in different sessions (e.g Emoji karaoke, translation of songs into emojis, emoji spellcasting, etc.). Emojis are everywhere and users feel attached to them. They were even considered as art (they joined the MoMa in New York). However, the rise of emoji has led to cultural problems; people want emojis to represent the world's diversity. A researcher wanted to find out why the first emojis were not diverse. She said that the first emojis actually aligned with the belief that technology is neutral.
Image Description | Photograph of two smartphone with emojis on their screen, photograph of the emojibator next to an emoji pillow, image of the original set of 176 emojis, and set of emoji faces in different skin colors
Image Tags | emojis

Google is killing off Android's emoji blobs

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 23.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, Google
Summary | Google are changing their indiosyncratic emoji blobs into more conventional round, more humanoid emojis. Part of the reason may be the Unicode Consortium has begun introducing skin and hair color options for more diversity. This way, emojis are becoming more humanoid and less abstract. Google is following suit so as to ensure maximum emotional compatibility between smartphone operation systems.
Image Description | Evolutions of emojis in Android from Emojipedia.
Image Tags | emojis

Emoji: the first truly global language?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 31.8.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, word/writing
Summary | The author of the article explains how sometimes sending an emoji can convey more than words, in just one click. Emojis have come a long way since their origin, and today one of the major concerns about emojis is diversity. The authors claims that if we're building a new language, we want to include everyone and everything. Emojis are also being used in other contexts (e.g. video clip, book). Words can express a lot but they can also create misunderstandings; emojis can thus be a way of freeing oneself from the limitations of language.
Image Description | Digital image representing different emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

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