11 Jan 2021 New Year, new digital responsibilities
Last year – and even as recently as January 6, 2021 – saw anti-democratic tendencies and misinformation magnified by social media in several countries, contributing to near breakdowns in the rule of law. It is time for stringent regulation of social media companies and online platforms as part of a more concerted plan to curb abuse, hate speech, and cyber-bullying.
21 Dec 2020 Remembering the past to reimagine the future
Cloud storage and hard drives are today’s scrapbooks, records, and memories. In his book delete (2009), Viktor Mayer-Schönberger explored “The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age”.
14 Dec 2020 Empowering women by tackling online harassment and abuse
Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 says, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
07 Dec 2020 Speaking up for decency and dialogue
Stars on the digital Walk of Infamy are being awarded to world leaders. Former US President Donald Trump, current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro have each received one. They have been admonished by Twitter and Facebook for posts that violate public interest policies and rules about misleading information.
30 Nov 2020 Facial recognition use and abuse
Public safety and national security are two advantages of facial recognition technology. Law enforcement agencies use the technology to identify known criminals and to find missing children or seniors. Airports are increasingly adding facial recognition technology to security checkpoints. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security predicts that by 2023 97% of travellers will be subjected to facial recognition.
23 Nov 2020 Biosurveillance can threaten human rights
Using smartphones to track and trace during the Covid-19 epidemic creates a smokescreen for wider surveillance measures that may infringe people’s right to privacy. Human rights activists are concerned that such data can be used to discriminate against migrants, refugees, and on racial grounds.
19 Nov 2020 Media Development 2020-4 online magazine and pdf
[caption id="attachment_32520" align="alignleft" width="190"] MD 2020/4[/caption] Media Development 2020-4 Communication in a Time of Crisis The Covid-19 pandemic burrowed its way deep into the human psyche. It fractured family and community. It negated social behaviour. It isolated. It made some people more selfish and others more aware. It...
19 Nov 2020 MD 2020/4 Editorial
Fifty-five years after the death of the French author Albert Camus, and at a time when Ebola was raging in West Africa, the British journalist Ed Vulliamy wrote a glowing tribute about one of the writer’s best-known books first published in 1947. “Of all Camus’ novels, none described man’s confrontation – and cohabitation – with death so vividly and on such an epic scale as La Peste, translated as The Plague.”1
