Concerned about Artificial Intelligence? Microsoft chat robot goes nuts
A chat bot released by Microsoft this Wednesday, was taken down on Thursday because her self-learning capabilities had turned her...
Things that caught our eye
Cyberbullying is a term that is commonly used in the media to denote cases that would not necessarily be classified by academics as “cyberbullying.” And “cyberbullying” laws are sometimes enacted in the wake of “moral panic” around children’s use of technology. The reach of these laws can extend far beyond addressing child conflict, and has implications for civil liberties. Such comments have been made before in reference to the Canadian province of Nova Scotia’s cyberbullying law. This article by a Canadian privacy and technology lawyer explains why.
Things that caught our eye
You may be familiar with Timehop, an app that draws from information on your social media accounts to remind you of your fondest memories from the past year (or at least what its algorithms think those memories may be). Now another app is out, called Memoir, which, in addition to this algorithmic curation, also allows you to label your memories, organize them and search for memories based on your current location.
The New York Times reporter summarizes the main concern around such apps much better than I would:
“This is perhaps the time to note that these apps remind us that we are putting a lot of information about ourselves out into the world. That information is easier for a third party to retrieve and organize than we might have imagined. Happy holidays!”
You can read the NYT review here.
Things that caught our eye
Tackling a perhaps less addressed aspect of Elonis case, raises the question of social media companies’ role in addressing threats on their platforms. Citron’s new book “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” analyzes key issues around how law could move forward in handling free speech challenges and distributing responsibility between schools, parents and Silicon Valley. You can read more on the aftermath of Supreme Court’s December 1st hearing on NYT’s Room for Debate.
free speech, Freedom of Expression, online harassment
Things that caught our eye
On December 1st, the US Supreme Court will hear Elonis’ First Amendment challenge to his conviction. Elonis had spent three years in prison after posting death threats to his wife on Facebook. While “true threats” are an exception to the rule against criminalizing speech, Elonis argues his posts do not constitute “true threats” because he did not intend to hurt his wife: the aggressive lyrics he posted had a cathartic function for him. Emily Bazelon, senior research fellow at Yale Law School and well-known writer on the topic of online harassment, discusses what is at stake with this decision in her post on the New York Times Magazine.
Blog
October was the national bullying prevention month in the United States and the media paid significant attention to the issue, with even Monica Lewinsky joining the anti-bullying campaign in an effort to end the culture of humiliation. Some anti-bullying campaigners criticized her involvement saying it would set back their cause because of Lewinsky’s tainted background. The latest results of the Pew Research Study on online harassment indicate the pervasiveness of this phenomenon: 60% of internet users said they witnessed someone being called offensive names; 53% have seen efforts to purposefully embarrass someone; and 24% witnessed someone being harassed for a sustained period of time (“sustained” usually being one of the requirements for researchers to label behavior as bullying). More…
Things that caught our eye
Here’s some important news from Eastern Europe that finally reached the US media: according to NPR, about 100,000 anti-government protesters gathered in Budapest on Tuesday to oppose a proposed plan to tax the use of internet. The Hungarian government says the tax is only extending an existing tax on telephones in order to address the growing share of communication that is taking place on the internet. However, the move is perceived as the government’s attempt to stifle voices from the opposition.
Read more on The New York Times.
Things that caught our eye
We’ve seen this before with breastfeeding images, and now the issue is back with childbirth photos. Whether you like it or not, Facebook is exercising its curating powers by removing photos of childbirth. Milli Hill, who heads the organization called the Positive Birth Movement, had her photos removed and her page temporarily banned after posting such images, which violated Community Guidelines. She observes:
“You could argue that this is simply about nudity, but I think there’s more to it. Social media reflects our wider culture’s issue, not with naked women, but with naked women who look real and active as opposed to air-brushed and passive. It also reflects millennia of attempts to suppress women’s power, of which childbirth is perhaps the ultimate expression.”
You can read more about it here: By removing photos of childbirth, Facebook is censoring powerful female images | Milli Hill | Comment is free | theguardian.com.
Things that caught our eye
On October 20th, the Canadian House of Commons will vote on the cyberbullying bill (C-13), which is widely seen as controversial because of its privacy implications. The C-13 makes it illegal to post an “intimate image” of another person without that person’s consent. It also gives the police easier access to metadata from online service providers and phone companies, the provision that Canada’s Privacy Commissioner was particularly concerned about. The Bill gives immunity to companies that hand over information. With the support from the majority Conservatives, the bill is expected to pass.
You can read more about it here: Cyberbullying bill inches closer to law despite privacy concerns – Politics – CBC News.
Photo of the Canadian Parliament Made By Maria Azzurra Mugnai
Things that caught our eye
If you care about privacy and are looking for an alternative to Facebook, Ello might be an interesting option. The network’s popularity seems to have grown exponentially in the past few days, particularly in the LGBTQ community, coders and visual artists. The network is self-described as “ad free that does not sell data about its users to third parties.” Joining is free but for the time being by invitation only. If you enter your email and ask to join, like I did, Ello will send you a note saying “we will invite you as soon as we can.” I look forward to observing how their cyberbullying/abuse/harassment policy will evolve. You can read more about Ello here.
Also see this recent blog post by Luke Heemsbergen about Ello.