Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 358
Posts 11 - 20

Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Facebook’s head of global policy management recently agreed to remove anything that violates the Vietnamese law from the social network. Governments around the world (even in the US) are increasingly trying to keep control of what's happening online. As a result, governments and big tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon don't always agree with each other. On the one hand, big tech companies want to have more control and power, and on the other hand, nations want to gain more control over people's online behvior. Facebook's desire to expand everywhere (e.g. in China) is one of the reasons for today's struggle between tech companies and nations. Facebook also faced some issues in Europe and Africa.
Image Description | Photograph of people using computers in a computer room, map of Facebook's users, two women laughing in front of a board displaying social media icons, Mark Zuckerberg and other people running in China, Mark Zuckerberg, his wife and daughters, glass building, people in front of a thumb-up sign, woman, crowd (some of them are using their phones), and people on their computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media

China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 25.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, threat, WhatsApp
Summary | The messaging app WhatsApp has been blocked in China. WhatsApp -which is owned by Facebook- was the last of Facebook products available in China. Indeed, both Facebook and Instagram are unavailable in China. To block the messaging app WhatsApp, the Chinese government may have created a special system that can intercept WhatsApp messages. Because of censorship in China, users have to turn to other messaging apps that can be easily controlled by the Chinese government (e.g. WeChat). When WhatsApp was blocked, many Chinese users complained.
Image Description | Photograph of a man staring at his phone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Are smartphones really making our children sad?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 13.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, smartphone, threat, youth
Summary | Children's relationship with screens has become a contested topic; not everyone agrees with what should or shouldn't be done. Last week, the Atlantic published an excerpt of Jean Twenge's book (the Atlantic article was titled "Have smartphones destroyed a generation?"), which initiated very diverse reactions. Jean Twenge, who is an American pychologist, said that social media have a negative effect on young people. Twenger then answered some of her critics in this Guardian article.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of teenagers all staring at their phone or tablet.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), smartphone, tablet

Doppelte Zeichenzahl bei Twitter? Nicht für Donald Trump

(Doubled number of characters for Twitter? Not for Donald Trump)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Welt
Date | 28.9.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | politics, texting, threat, Twitter
Summary | Twitter has announced that they will be testing a doubled 280 characters limit per tweet with a small test group. The 140 character limit is a remnant of Twitter's text-message related past and they have considered expanding it before, now they finally test it. The expansion of the character limit is meant to apply to all languages except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean because these languages already require less characters to express more content. Multiple Twitter users already panicked on Twitter saying that nothing can stop an international conflict if Donald Trump gets twice as much space on Twitter now. Twitter however confirmed that @realDonaldTrump is not included in the small test group.
Image Description | A screenshot of @realDonaldTrump's profile and a tweet about the new 280 character limit.
Image Tags | female(s), hashtag, male(s), Twitter

Au-delà des fantasmes, quels sont les problèmes concrets que pose l'intelligence artificielle?

(Beyond fantasy, what are the real problems that poses artificial intelligence?)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 4.8.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, threat
Summary | When Elon Musk said that robots were killing people and that we should be worried about that, Mark Zuckerberg replied that Musk's ideas were irresponsible and also praised the advances of artificial intelligence. Even if Musk's pessimism seems exaggerated, artificial intelligence raises some concerns and problems (e.g. impact on jobs, racist and sexist softwares, creation of autonomous weapons, surveillance problems, etc.)
Image Description | N/A

Non, Facebook n'a pas «paniqué» à cause d'un programme d'IA capable d'inventer un langage

(No, Facebook didn't "panick" because of an AI program capable of inventing a language)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 1.8.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, threat
Summary | Dhruv Batra, a researcher in artificial intelligence, read many Facebook posts and tweets describing apocalyptic scenes about the fact that artificial intelligence had invented a new language. Batra wrote an article denouncing how the media portrayed the event. When Facebook programmed two bots to teach them how to negotiate, employees noticed that the bots had invented their own language. The new language was based on English vocabulary; therefore, it was more or less comprehensible. But since the program was not working the way it was supposed to work, workers modified it. They didn't "kill" it, so there is no reason to panick.
Image Description | N/A

Facebook: «Nous voulons faire d'Internet une “no-go zone" pour les terroristes»

(Facebook: "We want to make the Internet a "no-go zone" for terrorists)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 16.6.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, Facebook, threat
Summary | Facebook just issued a statement where they explain how they want to fight propaganda and terrorism. Monika Bickert and Brian Fishman talk about why they released the statement now, the technology used to fight terrorism, artificial intelligence, privacy, and threatening content.
Image Description | N/A

Des enfants turbulents ou en retrait

(Agitated and distant children )

Hyperlink

Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 13.6.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, language threat, technology-free, threat
Summary | Experts are worried about the fact that some parents are addicted to their smartphone. Indeed, their addiction can have serious consequences on their children's development. Those children tend to be more irritable and to isolate themselves.
Image Description | N/A

Quand les écrans abîment nos enfants

(When screens damage our kids)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 26.8.2017
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | (mental) health, addiction, childhood, language threat, technology-free, threat
Summary | When young kids are exposed to screens, it can alter and damage their development. Doctors in Geneva are worried about this new phenomenon, especially with toddlers younger than 3. Some toddlers don't know how to talk, are hyperactive and can't focus. Parents shouldn't have strict rules at home and should be informed about the dangers of too much screen time.
Image Description | N/A

How emoji are taking over the world

Hyperlink

Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 3.8.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, threat
Summary | Paul Kendall talks about the rise of emojis and their popularity. emojitracker.com is a website displaying a grid of 845 emojis; every time a user tweets an emoji, the emoji lights up. Young people (under 30) communicate through emojis nowadays. Even marketers use them to appeal to their customers. Emojis are useful and precise, they allow users to communicate non-verbal cues that are essential. People should not be concerned about the rise of emojis; they are here to stay, but they are not a language.
Image Description | N/A

Page 2 of 36
Back | Next