Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 29
Posts 1 - 10

Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Facebook’s head of global policy management recently agreed to remove anything that violates the Vietnamese law from the social network. Governments around the world (even in the US) are increasingly trying to keep control of what's happening online. As a result, governments and big tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon don't always agree with each other. On the one hand, big tech companies want to have more control and power, and on the other hand, nations want to gain more control over people's online behvior. Facebook's desire to expand everywhere (e.g. in China) is one of the reasons for today's struggle between tech companies and nations. Facebook also faced some issues in Europe and Africa.
Image Description | Photograph of people using computers in a computer room, map of Facebook's users, two women laughing in front of a board displaying social media icons, Mark Zuckerberg and other people running in China, Mark Zuckerberg, his wife and daughters, glass building, people in front of a thumb-up sign, woman, crowd (some of them are using their phones), and people on their computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media

In Social Media Era, Selfies Are the New Tupperware Parties

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, marketing, selfie
Summary | The old door-to-door sales and Tupperware party strategy has been revolutionized by social media. Now private consultants to these companies advertize the product on their Facebook accounts or organize Facebook parties where users gather in a Facebook group and witness the exclusive publishing of product information in that group. A company selling a eyelash enhancing serum has made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit because their private consultants sold the product on Facebook with before and after selfies.
Image Description | Fake eyelashes and the eyelash enhancing serum.

Teaching A.I. Systems to Behave Themselves

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 13.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, Google, threat
Summary | Artificial intelligence systems have made huge development leaps in recent times but there is still a lot of learning to do. The image recognition AI assistants of Facebook and Google demonstrate how, on the one hand, they can recognize a lot of images correctly if they have had enough data to learn from and, on the other hand, how it still makes bold mistakes. It suffices to manipulate a few pixels and the AI system gets confused. Developing AI systems not only takes a lot of data but also trial and error phases which are monitored and taught by human teachers.
Image Description | Programmers working on computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)

Farhad's and Mike's Week in Tech: A Snap and Google Tie-Up?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 5.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, Google, Instagram, marketing, Snapchat
Summary | There is a rumor that Google might be interested in acquiring Snapchat. Instagram copies all features of Snapchat. Facebook has built a huge marketing company with Facebook itself and Instagram. Facebook is also working on improving its artificially intelligent chatbots so that they get better at understanding natural speech.
Image Description | Google and Snapchat logo.
Image Tags | Google, logo, Snapchat

'Ha' Isn't a Laugh. Seriously?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | People express laughs in different ways when the text or otherwise communicate online. Some type a version of "haha", others write "LOL" or a similar abbreviation but none of these messages mean that one is actually laughing. Linguists who have analyzed thousands of texts claim that LOLs signal interlocutor involvement like an "uh-huh" on the phone.
Image Description | Cartoon of various people laughing with various noises.
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

I'm O.K. - You're Pure Evil

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, politics, threat, Twitter
Summary | Social media has made the political discourse cruder. In order to be heard in the millions of users one needs to provoke in just 140 characters. This is a threat to democracy because violent statements about people in office have become the norm because it is appropriate on social media. But now even serious news outlets begin using similar language that does not help a healthy political discussion.
Image Description | Illustration of facial features with mouse cursor arrows.

Daily Report: The Limits of A.I.

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 16.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, Google, YouTube
Summary | Facebook wants to use artificial intelligence to remove offensive content from their platform. It is however not easy to teach a computer the nuances of offence. Google has tried to do the same thing on YouTube and they have definitely required human employees to double-check the content the artificial intelligence program has flagged.
Image Description | N/A

Facebook Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Uncover Extremist Posts

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 15.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, censorship, Facebook, politics, threat
Summary | Facebook has been urged by both users and politicians to do more to combat extremist content on their platform. It is Facebook's responsibility to monitor the content they allow so as not to provide a safe space for extremists. Facebook has announced that they plan to employ artificial intelligence to help them flag extremist content.
Image Description | An image of a man and blurry silhouettes standing under a Facebook logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), logo, male(s)

What the Kitty Genovese Killing Can Teach Today's Digital Bystanders

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 4.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, smartphone, threat, video communication
Summary | There are a few services now which allow smartphone users to broadcast videos live, for example on Facebook and on the Perscope app. Multiple people have already livestremed crimes like murder or sexual assault with a live audience watching without anyone having called the police. This is not right even though bystanders are no legally obliged to step in if they see a crime happening in most states.
Image Description | N/A

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