Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 12
Posts 1 - 10

Extremists driven off Facebook and Twitter targeting smaller firms

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.7.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | Small social media networks don't have the same resources as big social media platforms to fight terrorists. Because platforms such as Facebook or Twitter can quickly block accounts supporting terrorism, extremists need to find other "smaller" platforms.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand using a laptop.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s)

Notwendiger Twitter-Protest oder Vandalismus?

(Necessary Twitter protest or vandalism?)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 8.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, social media, threat, Twitter
Summary | A German artist protested Twitter's lax action upon hate comments on their platform by spraypainting hate comments from Twitter on the German Twitter headquarter building. Twitter only deletes 1% of user-reported hate comments. The German justice minister has also gone after social media companies and is threatening with very high financial sanctions if they do not comply with local laws that prohibit hate language.
Image Description | Image and tweets of the protester and of the justice minister.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

Crackdown on Online Criticism Chills Pakistani Social Media

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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

The Internet Is Where We Share - and Steal - the Best Ideas

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 6.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, law, meme, social media
Summary | Intellectual property is difficult to defend on the internet. Memes go viral and the origin is hard to track down. Recently even Hollywood snagged an idea off of social media where users began developing an idea for a movie based on a picture of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o. Social media users try to be creative and share their ideas on these platforms because it is addicting if other users respond positively.
Image Description | Illustration of a bunch of @ and copyright signs.
Image Tags | text

The Rise and Fall of Yik Yak, the Anonymous Messaging App

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 27.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | childhood, cyberbullying, law, privacy, social media, threat, youth
Summary | The anonymous messaging app Yik Yak became very popular in colleges and schools because it lets people broadcast anonymously to other users near them. The activity on the app has however started to become thretening with college students and children bullying each other and people making bomb threats that have led to multiple evacuations. A feminist group from University of Mary Washington have filed complaint to the University to block Yik Yak on campus because it has been used to harrass and threaten members.
Image Description | An illustration with a face and a smartphone and an image of the creators of Yik Yak.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Hinter dem Hashtag #BlauerWal steckt eine verstörende Geschichte

(A disturbing story hides behind the hashtag #BlueWhale)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | (mental) health, hashtags, law, social media, threat, youth
Summary | Currently, a man is on trial in Russian courts for supposedly urging 15 teenagers to commit suicide. The case is connected to the #BlueWhale challenge that is said to circulate online on social media. It is a lethal game where one person gives another increasingly self-destructive tasks. Apparently, psychologically fragile teenagers are targeted online.
Image Description | Getty image of a blue whale and images of a man being arrested and in trial with his face pixellated.
Image Tags | male(s)

What The Fuck

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 16.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, politics, social media, Twitter
Summary | The social media employee of the police department Mannheim tweeted out information about a seeming terror attack: a car had hit multiple people in a pedestrian only zone. She had tweeted that the suspect had been arrested. Other Twitter users however started aggressively demanding more information about the suspect, i.e. his race, heritage, religion, etc. The social media worker was shocked at how quickly people on Twitter made this a speculative far right-wing political issue and at somepoint even commented "WTF" in response to one of these tweets at her. Meanwhile people on Twitter were outraged that the police Twitter account would use such language.
Image Description | N/A

'Stop trolling Travellers' says police chief who vows to track down anyone posting 'hate crime material' online

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 4.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, law, social media, threat
Summary | A regional police officer is prosecuting internet trolls that are hateful towards the traveller community online. Travellers are being more accepted and visible in communities and granted to stop but people are still very hateful towards them on the internet and on social media. This is especially harmful to children in the traveller community because it keeps them from taking pride in their heritage.
Image Description | A portrait of the police officer, of the chair of the National Alliance of Gypsy Traveller and Roma Women, and images of Traveller camps.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Cop launches furious rant about 'yoofs' - but parents are really not happy

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 11.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, law, politeness, social media, youth
Summary | An unidentified police officer posted a rant about youths in the Manchester area asking parents to "lock up their kids till school time on Monday" because they are out of control, causing public nuisance. Local teachers and parents reported the post as wildly inappropriate and the heads of the police department issued an apology and promised to find out who posted the offensive content as officers are supposed to uphold their standard of behavior online as well. Many people however liked the post because they felt understood. They commented engourangments to the anonymous officer that he/she should not let the political correctness army get him/her down and keep his/her sense of humor.
Image Description | Getty images of young men/boys in black tracksuits from behind and a young man/boy with his face partially hidden with a black hoodie.
Image Tags | male(s)

Tackling abuse on social media is a monumental task - but billion dollar companies should be up to it

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 15.3.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, cyberbullying, law, social media, threat
Summary | Social media have a huge problem with trolling, cyberbullying, and sharing of criminal content. It is however extremely difficult for providers to find such content before it is reported or seen by many. Especially in verbal abuse, the line between joking and slander is blurred and human language is too messy to be able to flag down such instances with algorhythms.
Image Description | Getty image of the Facebook logo on a hand-held smartphone and a laptop and a photograph of a screen showing the Twitter logo.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo, Twitter

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