Social Media & Social Etiquette, Boston Tragedy brings issue to light

In class this week,we addressed the social media frenzy that followed the unfolding of the tragic events that occurred in Boston earlier this week (two explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon). As we mentioned in class and as Sarah references in her blog post, the reaction was quick and in many cases inaccurate. Individuals were arguably disrespecting the horrific tragedy by spreading false information and fabricating mythical iconic characters that died in the horrific event.

While this issue is very strongly argued to be breaking the rules of social media etiquette, there has been another, more subtle violation  to one’s “online manners.” Many active social media users were alarmed by the prevalent apathy that seemed to plague many Facebook and Twitter uses in the past few days following the event. Rather than publishing content that payed respect to the victims of the incident or at the very least refrain from posting happy, trivial statuses, many users were observed posting Spring Break Photos and complaining about having too many great summer music festivals to choose from.

This all raised the fundamental question: what isn’t appropriate to digitally talk about during a national tragedy?

“There are no concrete rules about these things, but you want to think about who it is affecting, how many people, the scope and scale before you share and as you move into sharing other things,” Jodi R.R. Smith, author of “The Etiquette Book,” told ABC News in an interview. (http://goo.gl/m95nL)

It seems that users need to recognize the larger context they are in, their posts much reach a wider audience than they initially expect them to, and they could be linked to someone who was affected in some manner by the tragedy.

However, some argue it’s ultimately the choice of the one who has been personally affected by the incident. Since they have no control over all the users they are linked to on these sites and all the potential content they may post, it is wise for them to remove themselves from the social media for the time being. Someone is ought to post something that will make them feel uncomfortable in this sensitive time.

I personally agree that on both ends, users must be conscious of the other users. Since one might be in a fragile state of mind, it is important that they are not connected to such a large and overwhelming social network. At the same time, if something so tragic happens, it is pretty justified to ask users to hold of their daily junk for another time, so they don’t distract individuals from important updates.

How would you all define social etiquette? In the scenarios provided, was social etiquette violated?

The Boston Myth-athon

In the wake of the Boston tragedy, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other major social media sites were putting out information faster than many accredited news sources. People were sad, angry, confused, and worried. Both individuals and organizations were sending out information from Boston and all over the world to try to give people accurate information and connect people with friends and families. While these social media sites are often useful in providing valuable information in the midst of chaos and poor cell service, much of the information is often unreliable. The pressure to provide information immediately allows for sloppy journalism and false information on social media sites.

One of the first myths I saw was on Instagram. A screenshot of the post is below, and it shows a little girl running the marathon. The post claimed that she was running in honor of Sandy Hook elementary school, and died as a result of the explosions.

The claim is 100% false. After seeing a few of these posts, both on Instagram and Facebook, I checked more credible news sources, and saw nothing indicating any young girl had died. Since then, CNN tweeted and posted an article on their homepage about the various myths that were spread.

The article disproves the 5 major myths that were spread, and also has a photo from the Twitter account @Hope4Boston (photo below). 

CNN writes “Sometimes accidentally and sometimes maliciously, false information gets loose. And in the rapid-fire digital echo chamber, it doesn’t take long to spread”. CNN goes on to dispel the 5 major false rumors that were spread. The myths are listed below.

1. Man planned to propose, girlfriend killed
   
2. Young girl died at finish line (same story as photo above)
3. Race organizers will donate for retweets
4. Authorities shut down cell phone service
5. Conspiracy theories

I was glad to see CNN posted this article, since the above 5 stories had been circulating on social media and had been mentioned in my own friend group. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just Twitter and other social media sites publishing false information.

Most significantly, the New York Post originally published that 12 people died in the explosions, which is also simply not true. Vanity Fair posted a satirical article outlining the few things that the New York Post actually got right — that the marathon was in Boston, and that they spelled Boston right. The inaccurate and misleading article was online for hours, and is now receiving much criticism for its false reporting. A screenshot of my close friend’s Tweet is below.

Of course, there were benefits to the use of social media yesterday. Cell service was spotty – so many relied on Wifi and websites to get information. There were several lists and documents to help people find their families and in helping people communicate. For example, various individuals tweeted about where people could gain access to Wifi. However, the examples and photos above demonstrate the many pitfalls and shortcomings of social media during and after the Boston Marathon, and highlight a major flaw in journalism and the deterioration of availability of accurate and reliable information.

Social Media in Thailand

In an earlier blog post, I talked about Thailand’s ICT usage and found that Thailand has a higher usage than many developing countries.  Unsurprisingly, Thailand is also very active in social media.

Thailand has a population of approximately 69 million people.  About 30% are online, according to Internet World Stats.

 

comScore reported that social networking is used by 96% of internet users and accounts for 30% of all time spent online in Thailand, with the third top website visited being Facebook.  As of February 2013, there are over 18 million Thai facebook users, which ranks Thailand 13 in the world.  Thailand has added over 1,000,000 new Facebook users in just the last six months.  Twitter and Instagram are not as popular, with only 1.5 million Twitter accounts and 800,000 pictures on Instagram with the hashtag “#Thailand.”  Thailand’s Facebook usage is extremely high – 74% compared to 47% in Italy, according to GlobalWebIndex.

Many attribute the large growth and use of Facebook in Thailand to gaming – a huge industry in Thailand.  Many young Thai’s also enjoy Facebook for connecting with friends and sharing pictures.

Source: http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/4/comScore_Announces_Availability_of_Online_Audience_Measurement_Services_for_Thailand

 

Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/thailand

Marcello Mari, Social Engagement Lead at GlobalWebIndex said, “Thailand is definitely one of the most interesting markets for what concerns the Social Media landscape. At GlobalWebIndex we track 31 countries in the World and we recently rolled out a simple and comparable measure which enables the exploration of how engaged different markets are. Asia (with the exception of Japan) dominates, with China leading the way regardless of the demographics compared. Thailand ranks 9th in this peculiar list behind Brazil, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, the most engaged country in the world according to the SEB [Social Engagement Benchmark] score.”

 

Social media is being used by the Thailand Department of Tourism to promote special events, festivals, and to attract tourists.  Additionally, social media has played a role in natural disasters in Thailand, such as the floods in 2011.  Social media sites helped Thai’s relay important information to their networks, which both helped save lives and keep the public informed, but attracted many more users, says reporter Michelle Fitzpatrick.  Social media also plays an important political role in Thailand, helping connect activists and spread awareness.  This is especially critical and sometimes dangerous under Thailand’s strict lese-majeste laws, for which the punishment is 15 years in prison.  Social media is starting to play a larger role in elections, however due to political tensions, it is often monitored and censored during elections.

Overall, Thailand’s social media use is impressive, especially for a developing country.  The usage is growing and shows a lot of promise and potential.

 

No Facebook?! — Social Media in China

An article on Fobes.com written by Henry Fong, the CEO of Yodo1 (a company that helps developers enter the China mobile gaming market) gave me some insight into the social media situation in China. My favorite quote from the article is Fong’s statement: “Facebook and Twitter will never dominate China (even if they were allowed there)” – so I will dissect this a little bit for you.

Yes, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all blocked in China. Although China has it’s own set of state-approved versions of these networks, you must wonder, why can’t they just use Facebook like the rest of us? Fong argues that Facebook is not conducive to China (or, rather, China is not conducive to Facebook) because its two main sources of revenue are advertisements and gaming; but both of these activities are highly regulated in China, and would require government licenses at every turn. With such strict monitoring, the system would be slow and inefficient, and therefore, unpopular.

Fortunately, China seems to be doing just fine without Facebook in the way of social media. In fact, according to Fong, there are more social media users in China than there are Facebook users in the entire world. As of October 2012, there were approximately one billion social media users in a population of 1.4 billion.

China’s social media platforms share the spotlight more equally compared to the US—several of their networks exceed 100 million active users, while in the US, Facebook and Twitter largely dominate the social media scene. The following Chinese social media networks have exceeded 100 million users (the parenthesis indicate the US ‘equivalent’ to these Chinese networks– also see picture below):

• QQ/Qzone (Facebook): 700 million +
• Sina Weibo (Twitter): 400 million +
• Tencent Weibo (Twitter): 200-250 million +
• WeiXin (WhatsApp): 100 million +
• Douban (MySpace): 100 million +
• Renren (Facebook): 100 million +

(photo shows social media equivalents in China)

In China, there are many more popular social media networks to choose from, and therefore more competition. This would likely also prevent US networks like Facebook or Twitter from “dominating China,” as aforementioned.

On a slightly different note, given these high penetration rates, a lot of pressure is being put on the government and businesses in China to understand and utilize social media in order to effectively reach their citizens and clients, respectively. As the population of internet and social media users increases, more and more pressure is being put on the government to increase transparency, which could be a good thing for the citizens of China.

To close, a quote by Sam Flemming (Founder and CEO of CIC, the first and foremost provider of social business intelligence in China) : “China has the most complicated, fragmented and developed social media landscape in the world with a unique online culture that requires its own specialized understanding.”

Sources:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/10/25/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-chinese-social-media/

http://globalthinkers.com/2011/12/social-media-in-china/

Social Media for Development

This past January, The Guardian’s Poverty Matters Blog posted a blog entitled Saving the world through social media? How development is going digital. The blog explains how many development agencies and organizations are now using social media to disseminate information and raise awareness and funds. Social media provides development driven groups to accomplish many of its goals affordably and on a broader scale for the masses. The blog highlights the benefits of social media: “a potentially cheap and efficient way to link citizens with their governments, the chance to monitor real-time progress on projects, and the ability to connect people from remote parts of the world to share experiences and teach best practice.” This is accomplished through apps, Twitter, hashtags, Facebook and other sites.

Specifically the blog outlines Digital Green, a campaign that uses social media to share agricultural practices, supported by the Indian government and foreign donors. The site shares tips and videos from thousands of farmers that other farmers can access. It also supports Farmerbook, a social network for farmers to promote themselves. Farmers can ask questions and connect with others in the field (literally and figureatively).

According to Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics, Digital Leader and Crisis and expert in digital leadership, media and future trends relating to the digitial world, Facebook is the 3rd largest country in the world with 1 billion people. Additionally, social media has become the #1 activity on the Web. Therefore, it only makes sense why development organizations have turned to using social media for its campaigns and in providing information to the public.

Monitoring Hate Speech over Social Media

One of the greatest strengths of social media is that it is completely uncensored. As demonstrated by the Arab Spring, this feature makes social media invaluable for organizing protests and spreading information that oppressive governments may not approve of. The complete freedom of speech over social media certainly promotes democracy. However, when it comes to hate speech, social media can be a double edged sword. Hate speech over social media has a wide scope and can range from high schoolers bullying each other on Facebook to tribes calling for mass violence against one another.

The latter is a huge issue for Kenya, especially during election seasons. Kenya’s 2007 elections resulted tribal violence that slaughtered over 1,200 people. With tension high for the upcoming elections, Kenyan government and civil society hope to prevent another mass outbreak of violence. One prevention strategy is to monitor hate speech over social media. This article on rueter.com describes the work of Kagonya Awori who runs Umati, a web-based project monitoring dangerous speech. The government has already banned the media from reprinting hate speech against other tribes in full but have no way of preventing viral hate speech over social media. 

Previously most political and tribal hate speech in was spread though radio but now most occurrences are over Facebook. Over Facebook there is no anonymity, since the poster’s name and location are displayed. This allows groups like Umati to monitor specific individuals who are making threatening posts and predict the locations of possible violent outbreaks. The government is taking Awori’s work very seriously and head of criminal investigations in Nairobi is threatening to prosecute anyone who spurs violence over social media.

Kenya clearly has different freedom of speech laws than the US so it does seem like monitoring hate speech is within the governments legal bounds. Preventing violence should of course be a top government priority, however, this article does bring to light the murky line between civilian protection and repressive censorship. It’s hard to say if governments should be able to prosecute their people for what they post other social media, even if it seems justified. Given that much of social media’s strength to incite change comes from a complete lack of censorship, fear of arrest could greatly weaken its force.

The evolution of social media in Hurricane Sandy

Throughout the semester we have discussed the multipurpose of Information and Communication Technologies as it can be utilized in a variety of ways in efforts to promote development.  This past week we have focused on Social Media and its effect in the developing world. While we have studied articles about social media in time of war as well as social media as a tool to deliver a message trans-nationally, we have also discussed social media in times of a natural disaster. It is well known that natural disasters are a huge component of international development as they have the ability to endanger a population and impede progress. According to a report released by the World Bank, “natural disasters can wipe out development gains and eclipse years of development investment. While they occur worldwide, their economic and social impacts have been increasing and are generally much greater in developing countries than in developed ones” (World Bank   2006). In recent years, while many ICTs have been used towards disaster relief in developing countries, we have also observed an increase of the tool in developed countries such as the United States.

In an article discussed in class, written by Sara Estes Cohen and published in Emergency Management, the reader apprehends a greater understanding of the use of Social Media in Disasters. In this article Sandy Marked a Shift for Social Media Use in Disasters, the author discusses how Hurricane Sandy displayed a shift in the use of social media. “More than ever before, government agencies turned to mobile and online technologies” (Cohen  2013).  Prior to the hurricane as well as after government official utilized social media tools such as Twitter and Newsrooms to deliver the public with crucial information in order to maintain awareness of the community. The mayor of New York as well as the Emergency and Evacuation agencies continuously kept contact with the public. The staff members provided immediate responses to the questions asked via Twitter accounts as well as Facebook.  The public of the city of New York had an option to subscribe to text messages released by the Mayor’s Office Twitter account that allowed people to still receive information once individuals lost power along with access to Internet. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA also held a twitter account dedicated to live updates on Hurricane Sandy. According to the article, “on Oct. 29^th, the day Sandy made landfall, FEMA reached more than 300,000 people on Facebook and reached 6 million Twitter users with one message” (Cohen   2013).  The American Red Cross also used social media tools to receive donations as well as promote relief.  After the Hurricane it was evident that social media became the major source of information for the general public.

The author of this article also discusses the challenges present with the use of social media such as rumors that spread around. She explains that rumors become a dangerous aspect of social media and can harm the public.  She thus concludes her article by claiming that while Hurricane Sandy did represent a significant evolution in the usage of social media it is important to introduce “standardized methods, new funding streams, and guidance. It is important to address the challenges so social media can be a tool for public safety in the future” (Cohen   2013).  This article is a perfect example demonstrating that social media can be used world wide in combined efforts to help all societies not just developed or developing countries.

Social Media’s Role in the Recent Venezuelan Elections

In October of 2012, Venezuela experienced one of its most imperative elections in history. Due to the approval of his amendment to the Venezuelan constitution that abolished term limits, the Socialist president Hugo Chávez was able to run for reelection. His rivaling opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, lost by 11 points, but mounted one of the fiercest challenges during the late president’s 14 years in power. The elections showed a historically high turnout, above 80% of the electorate, in a country where voting is not mandatory. Playing a huge role in the voting turnout, and in the ultimate outcome of the elections, was social media.

The article “Social Media Brings Changes to the Venezuelan Election,” (http://tinyurl.com/Social-Media-in-Vzlan-Election) presents evidence pointing to the widespread use of social media by both candidates to garner support for their respective campaigns. According to the piece, “12 million Venezuelans, or 47% of the population, surf the internet, making it one of the most connected countries in Latin America.” While Chávez maintained his historical control over the state media and used it to secure a third term, he also expanded his electronic reach to Twitter, with 3.3 million followers—2.2 million more than Capriles. Because Capriles’ campaign was mainly targeting youth middle class votes, however, he used social media more aggressively, expanding his presence “by using Facebook, YouTube and the photo-sharing website Instagram.” He even went as far as to create a Blackberry smartphone App for his campaign. While the article claims that Capriles managed to get more re-tweets than Chávez, his opponent still won the election.

Personally, I believe that while social media may have played a larger role in increasing voter turnout and widening the support networks of both candidates than it has in the past, it still could not orchestrate the final outcome of the election. After all, Chávez was infamous for his massive following made up of predominantly poor, lower-class citizens; and these citizens were most likely not the ones deciding who they were going to vote for based on their Twitter feed, because, quite frankly, they probably do not even have Twitters, or mobile phones for that matter. Nonetheless, the explosion of social media in the Venezuela’s historic October election definitely indicates that leaders around the world have taken notice of the power that this medium holds.

Tunisia: e-activism and the role of ICTs

Last week’s discussions pertaining to policy development and strategic planning got me thinking about a very unique country insofar as this topic is concerned. Tunisia, a small North African country, is best known for having undergone a revolution that ignited the ‘Arab Spring.’

Well, last spring I had the pleasure of studying abroad in Tunisia almost exactly one year after the country had just become newly independent from the former dictator Zine ben Ali. Almost every Tunisian I met is connected in some way as far as social media is concerned – most commonly with facebook. It is now understood that had it not been for these social networking tools, Tunisians would not have taken to the streets and demanded for change. Ironically, the government used these tools as ways to keep the public quiet – but obviously that was not enough.

After the revolution, there has been a tremendous boom in how Tunisians communicate and debate about the future of the country. ICTs have enabled doors to be opened to groups previously unable to participate in social activism. Groups in the southern part of the country who were the marginalized poor are now making their voices heard, thanks to ICTs that before were only accessed by select groups of people who were well educated and trained to navigate the murky waters of a censored internet.

In a report titled “Tunisia: From Revolutions to Insitutions,” authors Zack Brisson and Kate Krontiris cite this phenomena as “e-activism” which is evidence of a newly robust civil society. Many of these activists seek to change the political atmosphere in the country depending on their platforms (ex: traditional versus progressive, islam versus secular), and are using the internet as their tool. In response to these individuals and groups, the Tunisian Internet Agency, TIA, (which before was the agency responsible for censoring) is now engaging with – rather than harassing – activists.

The report covers a broad range of topics related to post-revolutionary Tunisia and where it is headed, but the one overarching theme is the role that ICTs have had in transforming civil society. This is just one example of what having the infrastructure and development in place can do for a country’s ability to use ICT as a tool for democratization.

Security vs. Civil Liberties

In this article by CNN, the author talks about new policies put forth by Facebook in order to prevent phishing and malware. The article states that a recent survey claims 52% of businesses have experienced increased viruses and malware. The most common way to do this is to post a racy or controversial link on Facebook in the hopes that someone will click on it. Once  clicked on, the link makes you log back in and it steals your login information (just like email phishing). This is something that our guest speaker yesterday spoke about. Although he is a bit of an alarmist (and hilariously so) the point about deciding where to draw the lines between security and our civil liberties is extremely relevant to all of us. He never really delved much deeper into that (probably because he wanted to seem politically objective) but I feel that is a debate that really needs to be more prevalent. With as many people obsessed with Facebook as there are, security of your online information is an increasingly pertinent issue. What would these “fair and balanced” policies look like? How can we have the government protecting our online lives without feeling that our rights are being called into question? Thoughts?