Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 33
Posts 21 - 30

Neuronales Netzwerk beschreibt Fotos für Blinde

(Neuron network describes pictures for blind people)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 5.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, diversity, Facebook
Summary | Facebook is testing a new function that tells blind users what is depicted by an image on Facebook. The system does not need human input to recognize the content of images - it has been feed with millions of images to "learn" to recognize certain things like the outdoors and sports. This is a way to include people with visual disabilities better on social media because a lot of the activity there is visual.
Image Description | Facebook feed with photographs explained.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s)

Das Monster lebt

(The monster is alive)

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 31.5.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | censorship, cyberbullying, Facebook, law, threat
Summary | Facebook is hiring thousands of new employees to battle cyberbullying on their platform and to remove offensive material as quickly as possible. But a couple thousand are not very many people to combat wrongdoings of 2 billion users. German politicians are trying to make Facebook comply with local laws about removing illegal content from the internet but Facebook is nowhere near fulfilling those requirements.
Image Description | A photograph of a man holding a smartphone showing the Facebook logo and the face of a monster.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo, male(s), smartphone

Dieser Chatbot reserviert den Tisch fürs Abendessen

(This chatbot makes dinner reservations)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, language threat, youth
Summary | Facebook messenger now has the chatbot Botmio on offer which lets users make dinner reservations at restaurants. This is perfect for younger generations who are reluctant to pick up the phone to call a human to make a reservation - digital natives are "language lazy". They would rather just make a reservation online without interacting with another human.
Image Description | A hand holding a smartphone using a Facebook chatbot and a portrait of the Botmio inventer.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), male(s), smartphone

Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme

(The sticker flood is on its way)

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, language threat, marketing, social media
Summary | Emoticons (f.i. ":-D") and abbreviations (f.i. "LOL") have trickled down from "geek speak" and established themselves in the mainstream. Emojis are nowadays ever present in our digital communication as well as in other arenas such as film or advertising. Now various social media platforms, among them Facebook, offer users various palettes of stickers. They are larger versions of emojis and are sent as an image file rather than included on the keyboard as a letter. Because many sticker palettes need to be purchased, a whole economy is beginning to form: The Japanese messaging app Line has sold over $250 mio worth of stickers last year. We do not need to fear that emojis and co. will replace language as we know it.
Image Description | Commodified emojis in various forms (as balls, as tattoos, as bed sheets, as food, on clothing, as masks, etc.) and Facebook messenger chats using/purchasing sticker collections.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, male(s), social media

Tailandia logra censurar en Facebook un vídeo de su rey

(Thailand was able to censor a video of its king on Facebook)

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Newspaper | El País
Date | 19.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, law
Summary | Thailand asked Facebook to withdraw 131 pages that contain "illegal" content (i.e. pages that violate strict laws concerning the royal family). Indeed, the royal family should not be criticized. One of the videos posted online showed the current king, Maha Vajiralongkorn, displaying his tattooed back and arms. Facebook accepted to withdraw the illegal content.
Image Description | Photograph of a Facebook profile with the picture of Mark Zuckerberg.
Image Tags | Facebook, male(s)

Germany threatens to fine social media companies €50m for hate speech and fake news

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 14.3.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, fake news, law, politics
Summary | Germany is threatening to sue Facebook should it not do something against abuse and fake news on its platform. Germany has very strong defamation laws so Facebook needs to regulate its content if they want to stay in Germany. A new mechanism to flag fake news has been developed.
Image Description | Reuters image of many Facebook logos under a magnifying glass and a portrait of Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas.
Image Tags | Facebook, hand(s), logo, male(s)

Facebook reportedly testing new tool to combat fake news

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 6.12.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, fake news, threat
Summary | Facebook is apparently looking into ways to combat fake news spreading on their platform. They have had to face much criticism because of this. Users have started getting little survey questions after clicking on news media links posted on Facebook asking them to evaluate how trustworthy the article is. It is not known what Facebook will do with the results of this poll.
Image Description | Getty image of the Facebook logo on various screens and a tweet.
Image Tags | Facebook, logo, male(s), Twitter

Exhausted students 'crying in toilets and breaking down in class' over 'unfair' new GCSE grading system

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 9.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, Facebook, politics, school, threat
Summary | A student has posted a rant about changes to the GCSE exam system making it yet more difficult. She describes how the whole student body has mental health issues since the changes were announced and just how ridiculous the expectations are. Her post has been shared almost 30'000 times by agreeing parents, teachers, and fellow students. Many commenters support her criticism while others show no understanding claiming that tests are meant to be hard.
Image Description | Getty images of someone writing with a pencil, and two images of exam situations, as well as a screengrab of the original Facebook rant.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), male(s), school

Here's everything Facebook knows about you - and it's just plain creepy

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 8.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | Facebook, marketing, privacy
Summary | It is remarkable bordering on scary how much information Facebook has on its users in order to target them with specific advertising. Facebook is aware of such things as their users' gender, age, generation, parenthood, being a pet owner, knowing people who have recently had a wedding/birthday/etc., political affiliation, spending habits, housing situation (including square footage of their house!), traveling habits, consumption practices (groceries, liquor, cosmetics, etc), car situation (worth, likeliness to buy a new car and what kind, etc.), and what type of mom they are (soccer, trendy, etc.)!
Image Description | Reuters image of a male silhouette using a smartphone in front of a lit-up Facebook logo and a Getty image of a Facebook page reflected in a woman's glasses.
Image Tags | Facebook, female(s), hand(s), logo, male(s)

2016: the year Facebook became the bad guy

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.12.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, Facebook, fake news, law, threat
Summary | 2016 has been a bad year for Facebook. Many scandals surrounded the company. It became clear that Facebook is now longer just an advertizing machine with access to almost 2 billion people world-wide but that it also curates what news media most of these people perceive - whether Facebook wants to accept this or not. They no longer just have to deal with sensoring nudity and human rights violations content but also fake news. While Zuckerberg denies that the fake news bubbles have influenced the presidential elections, his company at the same time makes tons of money selling exactly this persuasive power to advertisers.
Image Description | The Facebook reaction emojis and dislike (thumb-down) emojis, glasses in front of like buttons, and a man holding a smartphone with the Facebook logo in the background.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, logo, male(s), smartphone

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