Regulation, Good practice and Censorship

What kinds of questions does it raise about the internet and freedom of speech? 

Where do you stand on this issue? 

There should be regulation around it and warnings if its hateful to race religion or culture 

Cambridge Analytica a year on: 'a lesson in institutional failure' 

All the organisations we though we could trust, took our information and was selling it. GDPR (data protection act) 

It was a report that drew on hours of testimony from Cambridge Analytica, directors, Facebook executives and dozens of expert witnesses. On the 2 pivotal campaigns of 2016 of Brexit and Trump election. 

It exploited Facebook data harvesting from millions of people across the world to profile and target them with political messages and misinformation. Without their knowledge or consent. 

Facebook got fined 500k which is nothing to them. 

Equally, hate speech is covered by law and this applies to social media. 

Hate speech includes:

. Racism
. Homophobia
. Sexism
. Xenophobia (hate to other colours than yourself)
. Islamophobia
. Antisemitism 

Terrorist Attacks 

Increasingly, terrorist cells and individuals are uploading graphic content and sharing it via social media. This is taken down by the relevant organisation (such as Facebook or Twitter), who respond to 'reported' content that may be offensive.

The issue, though, is the response time. For example, ISIS Beheadings, after being uploaded onto social media sites, were shared amongst users so rapidly that authorities were effectively unable to remove them. There's also the issue of the 'dark web'

Christchurch Mosque attack in New Zealand 15.03.2019

One of the first terrorist attacks streamed

50 Killed over two mosque shootings. 

The shooter of the Mosque referenced PewDiePie and said 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' in his livestream

Self-Regulation

Whether professionally or privately, users are advised to comply with the law through self-regulation.

This means they should have an awareness of what is and what Is not illegal, and act accordingly. 

Regulatory Bodies 

IPSO - Can monitor online copy from news agencies and magazine industry but have no control over private individuals/businesses. 

ASA - Can advise on online advertisements, as can Ofcom and BBFC. 

Online streaming and VoD (Coupled with increasing privacy,) however, make this problematic. 

North Korea 

On every North Korean website, A piece of programming must be included in each page's code. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned his name is automatically displayed slightly bigger than the text not by much but to make it stand out. 

There is one cyber cafe in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.

It does not use Windows, but instead Red Star - North Korea's own custom-built operating system reportedly commissioned by the late Kim Jong-il himself.

Normal citizens do not get access to the "internet". That privilege is left to a select few known as elites, as well as some academics and scientists.

What they see online is so narrow and l asking in depth that it is not realistic. 

According to Mr Bruce, it consists mainly of "message boards, chat functions and state sponsored media". Unsurprisingly there is no sign of twitter. 

The Red star system runs an adapted version of the Firefox system names Naenera, this includes services such as the voice of Korea. 

There is a small minority of people with full unfiltered internet access however this is merely a few small families and most related to Kim Jong-un himself. 

China 

China has some strict firewalls to prevent potential subversions of its regime. Some internet searches are banned, and social media currently blocked in the country include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, gmail and YouTube.

China has its own social media platforms - perhaps the most widely used and well-known is Weibo 

Weibo 

What is Weibo:

It is one of the biggest tools for digital social networking, interaction and entertainment, and is one of the main players in digital marketing. Hosting more than 455 million users.

Weibo has 2 app versions, Weibo and Weibo International. Navigation of both are available is multiple languages including English.

Weibo Stories: 

One of the most recent features of Weibo is Stories. “Weibo’s stories” is a video function allowing users to record a video and save them in a separate “Story” menu in their profile page.

Weibo Vlog: 

Weibo has also launched a new “Vlog” function. Now, every video with a hashtag VLOG will be available in the main search page under “VLOG” sub-menu.

Who posts on Weibo:

Even celebrities post on Weibo, as social networking becomes a way on getting income. Many brands have benefited greatly from highly influential celebrities mentioning products in their posts. Here is the list of the most followed people on Weibo:

Top 10 followed on Weibo: 

1) Xie Na (xiena): 125,734,139

2) He Jiong (hejiong): 120,008,370

3) Yang Ming (yangming): 107,595,818

4) Angelababy (realangelababy): 102,212,077

5) Chen Kun (chenkun): 93,457,719

6) Zhao Wei (zhaowei): 85,645,643

7) Zhao Li Ying (zhaoliying): 86,692,583

8) Yao Chen (yaochen): 83,812,387

9) Deng chao (Feng hao): 80,967,229

10) Yi Xiang Qian Xi: 84,597,108

Bias and Ideology 

In Marxist thought, society is seen to resemble a pyramid. The ruling classes form only a small percentage of the population, and their position is therefore propped up by the educated workers, who in turn are propped up the working classes. 

Because there are so many people at the bottom of the stack, it's important to keep them from revolting. This is really why the media exists, especially in terms of news, television, film, radio, the internet. It's a distraction from the realities of existence

'Gatekeepers' control the flow of information from the ruling classes (the superstructure) to the proletariat (base structure). This creates. the potential for bias. It exists in every society.