Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 38
Posts 31 - 38

Fighting fake news: societies using technology to search for truth

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 0.0.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, fake news, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Many countries are trying to combat fake news and urging Facebook to find ways of combatting fake news. They influence elections by deceiving people and that is a great problem. It is nearly impossible to identify fake news with a program, it takes a human. Facebook is now allowing users to flag suspicious content, which is then reviewed and if deemed fake, labeled as such and displayed with a lower priority. Fake news are not taken off of Facebook because that would be censorship.
Image Description | Shutterstock images of protesters against fake news.
Image Tags | female(s), text

Selfie géant d'Hillary Clinton: le simulacre de la politique

(Hillary Clinton's giant selfie: the sham of politics)

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Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 26.9.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | politics, selfie, threat
Summary | The philosopher Bertrand Vergely talks about Hillary Clinton's giant selfie and claims that it reflects a political cynicism. It also reveals the perversity of politics, communication, and images. When Hillary decided to take the selfie, she was not really playing. In fact, she knew exactly what she was doing. She knew that the audience wanted to have a selfie with her, so she gave them what they wanted. It was a smart move. However, it was also a little dangerous because she played with her ego. This kind of manipulation is called cynicism.
Image Description | N/A

No, wealth isn't created at the top. It is merely devoured there

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 30.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | politics, social media, threat
Summary | The new rising technology firms like Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber are the new class of rentiers. The do not create anything new, they claim control over goods and services and cash in on transactions made on the platform they provide. That is all they do: provide a platform. It is only profitable because people willingly share content and offer their services on these sites. But these firms also have not invented the technology (internet, computer devices, etc.): that technology was developed with the tax payer's money. So technically they are just selling and reselling already existing goods - like a rentier.
Image Description | Getty image of a protester, an iPhone, the Facebook campus, a bunch of bank signs, and a Mexcan capitalist.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, text

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

In search of 'lulz,' trolls hijack civic engagement

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | cyberbullying, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Internet culture's sense of humor has become careless. A meme was recently circulated in Pennsyvania that said that one could vote online by just commenting the name of their candidate. Even though this was a joke, it was dangerously close to disenfranchising people of their votes. In the same way some people post anti-semitic or racist/sexist things and then claim to just do it to combat the tyranny of political correctness and not really meaning any harm. Such content however promotes extremism and is harmful - no matter the intentions.
Image Description | Man holding up Hillary Clinton toilet paper.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)

Police charge student with tweeting a threat after white supremacist petition circulated

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 17.1.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, politics, school, threat, Twitter
Summary | After a white supremacist leaflet has been circulated in a local high school, a student took to Twitter to announce that the school will be attacked. The police were able to identify the student and she was charged "on a juvenile citation with disruption of school activities" but was not incarcerated as she is a minor. The school spokesperson has voiced their great concern with the white supremacist material that has circulated in the school.
Image Description | White supremacist leaflet.
Image Tags | text

In Race Against Fake News, Google and Facebook Stroll to the Starting Line

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Newspaper | New York Magazine
Date | 25.1.2017
Language | German
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, fake news, Google, politics, threat
Summary | Google and Facebook are beginning to respond to the wide criticism that they do nothing to combat fake news on their platforms. Critics blame the uncontested spread of fake news for the voting of Donald Trump. Facebook and Google are now trying to block new providers on their platforms that spread misleading content but critics doubt that these measures are very effective.
Image Description | Getty image of a Google cafeteria.
Image Tags | Google, male(s), smartphone

Maschine oder Mensch

(Machine or human)

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Newspaper | Nürnberger Nachrichten
Date | 7.10.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, politics, social media, threat
Summary | Experts predict that how we use new media will change drastically in the next two years thanks to chatbots: artificial intelligence services that appear on various social media or devices. They have existed for a while but their understanding of voice commands has improved immensely making them very user-friendly. A problem is that social bots can be bought to like one's content on social media, thereby making content appear to be much more popular than it is. This is a danger to the free decision making process of democracy.
Image Description | N/A

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