Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 12
Posts 1 - 10

Two Saudi women are sentenced to 20 lashes for using bad language while arguing with each other over WhatsApp

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 24.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, game, gender, WhatsApp
Summary | Two Saudi women were sentenced to 10 days in prison and 20 lashes because they used bad language on WhatsApp. Saudi Arabia has been condemned numerous times for violating human and women's rights, and restricting freedom of expression. For instance, the game Pokemon Go was banned because it is similar to gambling.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone with the WhatsApp logo on the screen, and photograph of the city of Jeddah.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, WhatsApp

Das ist an Messenger-Verschwörungstheorien dran

(This is the deal with messenger conspiracy theories)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 5.11.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, privacy, Snapchat, texting, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A list of popular messengers is analyzed in terms of how well they protect their users' privacy. The safest one is Signal and many others have end-to-end encryption, for instance WhatsApp. They still collect the metadata though (interlocutors, time of interaction, location). Some even save the content that is sent around - most shockingly Snapchat which is popular becuase it supposedly leaves no trace. Some messengers supposedly have ties with national security ministries, like Telegram in Russia and Viber in Israel. Apple recently refused to work with the FBI in giving away a customer's personal information.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen with messengers and a video about messengers.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, smartphone, WhatsApp

Pling, Pling, Doppel-Pling

(Ding, Ding, Double-Ding)

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Newspaper | Süddeutsche Zeitung
Date | 30.9.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | addiction, smartphone, social media, WhatsApp, youth, YouTube
Summary | A day in the life of a 13 year old who receives 200 messages a day. Lina uses her smartphone first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Though her father does not necessarily like her constant use of the smartphone and the notifications all the time, he is not worried about an addicion. Parents were taught about the risks on parent-teacher meetings. Lina is in a ton of group chats and is beginning to use Musical.ly. YouTube is a staple entertainment source for her.
Image Description | Lina with the smartphone on her bed and a hand holding a smartphone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone

Vorsicht vor dieser Whatsapp-Falle

(Beware of this WhatsApp scam)

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Newspaper | Stern
Date | 19.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A WhatsApp chain message is going around offering people free holiday emojis. A link directs them to a dodgy website where they type in their phone number and service provider. Instead of getting free emojis however one is signed up for an expensive subscription with hardly any possibility to quit. People should be careful with content they receive and spread through WhatsApp.
Image Description | A hand-held smartphone.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), hand(s), Instagram, smartphone, Viber, WhatsApp

Das sind die neuen Funktionen von Whatsapp

(These are the newest functions of WhatsApp)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 7.7.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Snapchat, WhatsApp
Summary | New image editing and music features are supposed to be added to the messaging app WhatsApp. Funny filters, the possibility of adding stickers and drawing on pictures might be incorporated into WhatsApp – functions which are mainly known to be Snapchat features. Users will also be able to share music through the app and listen to it without having to download it. Further, it will be possible to join a group simply by clicking on a link.
Image Description | Photograph of a smartphone screen with different icons (WhatsApp, Skype, Viber) and a finger pointing to the WhatsApp icon. Screenshot of a Twitter account that mentions the new WhatsApp features.
Image Tags | hand(s), logo, Skype, smartphone, Twitter, Viber, WhatsApp

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

Government secretary tweets nude ‘selfies’

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Newspaper | The Local
Date | 7.8.2014
Language | English
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | pornography, selfie, sexting
Summary | A Bernese office employee had been tweeting nude images from her office to her 11'000 followers. She works for the Swiss government, whose employment policies ask employees to only post thing on social media that they would be comfortable sharing with their co-workers and supervisors as well and to keep the Swiss government's reputation in mind even when they are off the clock. The secretary in question, who has participated in several hundred amateur porn films as is now confirmed, claims that her private life does not interfere with her professional life in any way and that they should be kept seperate. It is unclear how her employers will handle the situation.
Image Description | Getty image of a woman taking a selfie.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), selfie, smartphone

WhatsApp Finally Adds Fully-Encrypted Video Calling Service

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, WhatsApp
Summary | WhatsApp announced that it will soon be possible to have end-to-end encrypted video calls. Since WhatsApp has been acquired by Facebook, they have been able to use Facebook's huge infrastucture which enabled them to include online calls and now video calls, too. Users seem very worried about government surveillance, especially now that Donald Trump has been elected. WhatsApp still keeps dossiers of their users' contact lists and other meta-data but not of the content of their messages. Initially in the WhatsApp/Facebook merger, the companies ensured users that their data of the two platforms would not be connected but their privacy policy has recently changed, breaking this promise.
Image Description | Getty image of a hand holding an iPhone with just a huge WhatsApp icon on it. A video explaining the new adjustments to WhatsApp's user privacy policy.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Wegen WhatsApp – Jungen fehlt Gesprächsstoff

(Young people don’t have anything to talk about because of WhatsApp)

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Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 3.8.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Young people in Britain and Switzerland spend more time using WhatsApp than actually meeting with their friends. Because all personal news can be shared on WhatsApp much more conveniently than face-to-face thanks to group chats, young people run out of things to talk about when they actually meet. Most young people however become critical of their new media use once they have spent a few years on social media and start optimizing their online activity.
Image Description | Photograph showing hands holding smartphones.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Versetzt Whatsapp dem E-Mail den Todesstoss?

(Is WhatsApp giving the e-mail the death blow?)

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Newspaper | Der Bund
Date | 23.10.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | A rumor is going around that WhatsApp is planning to introduce a document sharing function into the app. This way, Word or PDF documents could be sent through WhatsApp rather than other channels. This might mean the death of emails, a media that already counts as old-fashioned.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand holding a smartphone where there are four social media icons.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone, social media

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