Anti-social media. Would this work in a country
where citizens trusted the police to catch criminals?
As mob
lynchings fueled by WhatsApp messages sweep India, authorities
struggle to combat fake news
Five people were killed by a mob in India on
Sunday after rumors spread on social media that they were child
traffickers, the latest in a string of lynchings tied to fake social
media messages that have left officials stunned and grappling with
ways to control the rising violence.
More than a dozen people have been killed across
India since May in violence fueled mainly by messages on the WhatsApp
service. The cases largely feature villagers, some of whom may be
using smartphones for the first time.
… In recent days, officials of WhatsApp —
owned by Facebook and based in Menlo Park, Calif. — have introduced
a new function that allows administrators of groups to control which
members can post messages, and the company is testing a plan to label
which messages are forwards. WhatsApp is expanding outreach in India
as its 2019 general election looms and political parties are signing
up “WhatsApp warriors” by the thousands — who, in some cases,
spread incendiary content themselves.
I see many many problems with this. A good
discussion topic for my students.
Amelia Harper writes:
With the 2017-18 school year going on the books as the deadliest school year in decades, school leaders are looking at ways to prevent more school tragedies. The need to protect the lives of students and teachers has caused school districts to examine a number of solutions, including the increased monitoring of online threats that may affect schools.
These programs do not monitor all social media but look for keywords that indicate threats of violence to others or self-harm. Proponents of the program say that such measures mitigate [perhaps they define it differently. Bob] threats and prevent potential suicides, another important concern. Critics of social media monitoring point to possible violation of privacy concerns, potential human rights violations, and the possible misuse of such monitoring by schools to target students of color.
Read more on Education
Dive.
[From
the article:
"We are talking about the government actively
seeking out children’s social media accounts, both public and
private, and combining this information with existing law enforcement
or social services records to profile which students are threats,"
Amelia Vance, of the Future of Privacy Forum, told the commission,
saying that such programs should targeted at only "the most
serious threats."
It’s a pretty messy mess.
Facebook’s
disclosures under scrutiny as federal agencies join probe of tech
giant’s role in sharing data with Cambridge Analytica
A federal investigation into Facebook’s sharing
of data with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica has broadened
to focus on the actions and statements of the tech giant and now
involves multiple agencies, including the Securities and Exchange
Commission, according to people familiar with the official inquiries.
Representatives for the FBI, the SEC and the
Federal Trade Commission have joined the Department of Justice in its
inquiries about the two companies and the sharing of personal
information of 71 million Americans
… The questioning from federal investigators
centers on what Facebook knew three years ago and why the company
didn’t reveal it at the time to its users or investors, as well as
any discrepancies in more recent accounts, among other issues,
according to these people.
… The probe by the FTC, which oversees
consumer privacy, concerns whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent
decree regarding its privacy practices. An FTC fine could
potentially reach
into the billions of dollars.
Is there a fix?
Web creator
Tim Berners-Lee focuses on fixing the web
Vanity
Fair/Hive: “I Was Devastated: Tim Berners-Lee, the Man Who
Created the World Wide Web, Has Some Regrets. Berners-Lee has seen
his creation debased by everything from fake news to mass
surveillance. But he’s got a plan to fix it…
“…Berners-Lee, who never directly profited off
his invention, has also spent most of his life trying to guard it.
While Silicon Valley started ride-share apps and social-media
networks without profoundly considering the consequences, Berners-Lee
has spent the past three decades thinking about little else. From
the beginning, in fact, Berners-Lee understood how the epic power of
the Web would radically transform governments, businesses, societies.
He also envisioned that his invention could, in the wrong hands,
become a destroyer of worlds, as Robert Oppenheimer once infamously
observed of his own creation…
He is now embarking on a third act—determined to fight back through both his celebrity status and, notably, his skill as a coder. In particular, Berners-Lee has, for some time, been working on a new software, Solid, to reclaim the Web from corporations and return it to its democratic roots…”
Perspective. Move fast, pedal your way to
success?
Uber
launches shared bike service in Austin, entering crowded market
… Operating under the name Jump Bikes, Uber’s
service will compete in an increasingly crowded shared services
market that has been ramping up ever since dockless, electric
scooters started appearing in downtown areas around the country
months ago.
(Related)
Lyft gets
into bike-share business, acquiring operator of Capital Bikeshare and
Citi Bike
… The ride-hailing company acquired Motivate,
the operator of Capital Bikeshare and New York’s Citi Bike, among
other bikeshare services, in a deal believed to be valued at least
$250 million. The company will introduce “Lyft Bikes,” seizing
on the momentum around dockless and pedal-assist e-bikes in major
U.S. cities
(Related) Find (map) your options.
Citymapper
adds dockless bikes and scooters to its urban transport app
Citymapper has been adding a multitude of
transport options to its popular city transit app over the past few
weeks, with dockless bikes and motorized scooters now appearing
globally.
Perspective. Is this always a bad thing?
Co-opting
the Constitution: How Corporations Influence American Law
… . In his new
book, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their
Civil Rights, UCLA law professor Adam Winkler explores the
200-year history of how businesses have molded jurisprudence.
Something for website students.
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