Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 10
Posts 1 - 10

Teaching Kids Coding, by the Book

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, gender, school
Summary | A non-profit organization called "Girls Who Code" provides after-school coding classes and coding camps to girls all over the country. It started as an attempt to recruit more girls to computer programming and now the demand is far larger than the available spots. The organization is now publishing a series of books of entertaining nature whose protagonists are girls who code so as to make girls relate to computer programming and imagine themselves as coders.
Image Description | Women/girls huddled over a laptop together.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), school

Crackdown on Online Criticism Chills Pakistani Social Media

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, misunderstanding, social media, threat
Summary | The Pakistani government has passed a very strict law that prohibits any anti-government or anti-army posts on social media. Some people have already been arrested. They claim that their posts were not criticizing the armed forces and that it was all a misunderstanding. This is a huge issie when people get arrested for trivial tweets.
Image Description | Getty image of a protest.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

Germany Tells Sites to Delete Hate or Pay Up

Hyperlink

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

How Silicon Valley Pushed Coding Into American Classrooms

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, marketing, school
Summary | The Partovi brothers who are early investors in some major tech companies have started inversting in computer programming teaching. They advocate that all public schools in the US should teach students coding. Of course tehy have a personal interest: the more skilled coders there are, the better their field wil develop.
Image Description | Illustration of a man in front of a computer screen and a man teaching little children.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)

In Europe’s Election Season, Tech Vies to Fight Fake News

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 1.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, Facebook, fake news, Google, law, politics
Summary | In light of recent elections, many people are eager to combat misinformation online. Major tech companies like Facebook and Google are being pressured to purdue solutions to stop the spread of fake news on their platforms. Germany even demands fines from Facebook for not complying with federal laws targeted at keeping hate speech and fake news controled. Competitions with rewards of several thousand dollars are asking for programmers to come up with fact-checking software which can weed out false news.
Image Description | Image of a computer programmer working on solutions to flag fake news and a Reuters image of election posters from France.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

He Tweeted About Chinese Government Corruption. Twitter Suspended His Account.

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 26.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, privacy, Twitter
Summary | A Chinese billionaire has publically denuciated Chinese government officials on Twitter by posting images of documents that evidence corruption. His account was suspended by Twitter for a few hours because the shared documents contained personal information which Twitter usually flags.
Image Description | Portrait of Guo Wengui.
Image Tags | male(s)

Father in Thailand Kills 11-Month-Old Daughter Live on Facebook

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, censorship, Facebook, law, threat
Summary | Since Facebook has enabled its livestream functions many crimes have been broadcasted on Facebook. Facebook still struggles to take such offensive content down. Recently a man livestreamed himself killing his daughter and the recording stayed online for twenty hours. Facebook needs to improve its artificial intelligence mechanism to flag such content faster.
Image Description | Reuters image of people crying.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Teaching Bronx Students the Language of Computers

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, digitized education, diversity, game, school, youth
Summary | The Bronx is offering their local students computer programming classes - many more than average schools. The students in the Bronx are learning to code so that they can create the technology of the future rather than just consume it. A group of students presented an app they created to investors in Manhattan: it lets users post videos showing police brutality and makes an interactive map of where the incidents happened. Users can also play a game on the app in which they have to avoid ficticious police gun shots.
Image Description | Three male students of color holding a presentation.
Image Tags | male(s)

Obama Shifts Online Strategy on ISIS

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, politics, social media, threat
Summary | President Obama is sending his representatives to California to speak to the major social media platforms in order to find ways to stop ISIS from recruiting new members on social media. The terrorist organization has proven to be very successful on social media and stopping their success on social media is a good proactive measure in defeating ISIS. Removing threatening content from social media however always risks being likened to censorship.
Image Description | Portrait of an Apple representative.
Image Tags | male(s)

Obama Shifting Online Strategy on ISIS

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, law, politics, privacy, threat
Summary | President Obama wants to use surveillance techniques of new media to find IS terrorists. Tech companies, however, increasingly offer their users encrypted messaging services and refuse to hand over the keys to the government. Companies are protecting their users' privacy but also giving terrorists safe channels of communication.
Image Description | Portrait of Apple’s chief executive.
Image Tags | male(s)

Page 1 of 1