Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 104
Posts 11 - 20

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

Like Father Like Son, Using Twitter as a Foil To Skewer Political Foes

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | Both President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. like to use Twitter to control the media narrative about the Trump administration. When the newspapers print a story that they do not like, they respond to it on Twitter. They claim that many readers also take to Twitter to get their news when they feel that the traditional media outlets are not reporting an a neutral enough manner.
Image Description | Donald Trump Jr. taking a picture on his smartphone.
Image Tags | 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)

YouTube Sets Policies To Restrict Extremism

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Google, marketing, threat, YouTube
Summary | Google has been using artificial intelligence to weed out offensive videos from YouTube and take them down. It is quite good at detecting nudity, graphic violence, and copyright violations. However, other less straightforward offensive material remains on the platform such as cultish sermons by extremist muslims. These are however not being monetized by displaying advertising next to them.
Image Description | An image of the London Tower and a portrait of a man.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Facebook Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Uncover Extremist Posts

Hyperlink

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)

Less Tweeting, Lawyers Beg. ‘Covfefe,’ the President Says

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 31.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | President Trump has begged by his advisers to refrain from Tweeting, now his lawyers are advising him to do the same. He has shown that he is capable of not Tweeting on his trip to the Middle East and Europe which lasted nine days without a single Tweet. Now he is back and sent out a Tweet containing the mysterious term "covfefe". His advisers have previously said that they try to keep him busy for 12-15 hours a day so he does not Tweet.
Image Description | A reflection of President Trump on a polished wooden table.
Image Tags | male(s)

Bizarre tweet, weird explanation

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 1.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, Twitter
Summary | President Trump's latest Tweet seems to be interrupted mid-sentence featuring a mistyped word: "covfefe". The news media have been reporting about covfefe for hours with millions of people cracking jokes about it on Twitter and other social media. This alleged mistake (which was taken down after five hours) managed to dominate the political discourse in the US rather than any actual pressing issues like the Presidents possible ties to Russia.
Image Description | Sean Spicer at a press conference and Donald Trumps Twitter feed.
Image Tags | male(s), Twitter

As Computer Coding Classes Swell, So Does Cheating

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 29.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | computer programming, threat
Summary | Computer programming classes are increasingly in demand at universities across the country. Reports of students plagiarizing and copying code from each other are however also increasing. It is difficult to find out whether students have cheated but identical mistakes are a dead giveaway. One programming professor has also written a programm to compare codes and find how similar they are indicating the likelihood that the two codes were collaboratively written.
Image Description | Image of a lecture hall showing the lecturer's laptop and an image of a female student walking on campus.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, female(s), male(s)

The limits of instant activism

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 28.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | politics, social media
Summary | A new book titled "Twitter and Tear Gas" by Zeynep Tufekci is coming out. It discusses the infuence of social media on protest culture. The author has been present in many recent protest movement: Occupy Wall Street, the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, the Tahrir Square protests, and many more. In her book, she concludes that social media help mobilize many people very quickly, as the anti-Trump marches have shown. However, this ease with which people are mobilized to attend a protest make the ties within the protest community looser making it difficult for the movements to overcome issues later on in the process.
Image Description | Image of the March on Washington in 1963.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), text

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

Hyperlink

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

Page 2 of 11
Back | Next