SOCIAL MEDIA JUSTICE - GLOBAL PRESS CA 2013

SOCIAL MEDIA JUSTICE  - GLOBAL PRESS CA 2013

TORONTO – While online vigilante justice wasn’t necessarily on the rise in 2013 (it seemed to peak in 2012), experts say there certainly was more awareness of it this year.

With stories that elicited outrage (think Rehtaeh Parsons’ death following an alleged rape, the Boston Marathon bombings and news of a sex ring in New Zealand where teenage boys lured girls into having sex, then bragged about it online), came stories of digital vigilantes looking for justice.

Unlike in law enforcement and journalism, Johnson said there are fewer checks on social media.But it didn’t always end well for these online crusaders. “These cases illustrated that online vigilantism is generally not a good idea,” said Matthew Johnson, Director of Education at MediaSmarts. “It’s not to say that police and journalists don’t make mistakes, but there are checks on them, and these don’t exist when a particular theory takes the imagination of an online community.”

The hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers

On April 15, 2013 two pressure-cooker bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over 260. Photos from the scene – in the hours leading up to the explosion and in the aftermath – spread like wildfire on social media.

As police searched a city in lockdown for suspects, users on Reddit began to mobilize. The “subreddit” Find Boston Bombers was created and thousands of users pored over photos, making loose connections to individuals in the photos to the only crime scene evidence released by the police – pressure cookers and a black backpack linked to the explosions. The well-intentioned efforts quickly devolved into a witch hunt, with innocent people being wrongly identified as the bombers.

The Reddit user who started the subreddit said that the photo hunt was “a disaster,” adding it was naive to think the conversations and theories emerging within Reddit wouldn’t spread outside of the site. Reddit’s general manager Erik Martin said on a blog post that the activity on Reddit following the bombings was polarizing. Some Reddit users offered help after the bombings, providing information, donating relief funds and arranging housing and transportation for those affected by the bombings.

However, “though started with noble intentions, some of the activity on Reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties,” Martin wrote. Johnson said it showed us that it’s a mistake to focus on particular platforms when discussing online vigilantism – “what’s important is the online community that forms,” he said.

SOCIAL MEDIA VIGILANTES - GUARDIAN MARCH 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA VIGILANTES - GUARDIAN MARCH 2015

Can vigilantes and whistleblowers live together? I came across the story of Dark Justice, a group that entraps sex offenders into believing they are meeting underage children and then reports them to the police. It made headlines recently when one of its targets was convicted in Newcastle and imprisoned for two years, apparently the first conviction in the UK as a direct result of vigilante activity.

The group says it only publishes names of its targets after a conviction. If it sticks to that, there would appear to be little chance of mistaken identity. So, is it a good thing? Is this a way to support a thinly spread police force that hasn’t got nearly enough resources to deal with the number of offenders in this climate of disclosure, historic inquiries and increased public awareness? Or is Dark Justice a Pandora’s box that will encourage less ethical groups to copy them, possibly target innocents or even corrupt evidence to the point that conviction becomes impossible?
We live in an age of near instant communication with increasing examples of private evidence gathering. Whistleblowing has been in the spotlight as a legitimate method of addressing grievances. Will it come to the point where all employees in sensitive jobs are encouraged to carry recording devices? Hidden cameras are on the increase in care homes and institutions of all types. Much of the malpractice they discover is terrible and, quite rightly, abuse is stopped.

FLIGHT FROM CONVERSATION

The Flight From Conversation NYTIMES

SHERRY TURKLE APRIL 21,2012

WE live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates. My students tell me about an important new skill: it involves maintaining eye contact with someone while you text someone else; it’s hard, but it can be done.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve studied technologies of mobile connection and talked to hundreds of people of all ages and circumstances about their plugged-in lives. I’ve learned that the little devices most of us carry around are so powerful that they change not only what we do, but also who we are. We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.” Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be. We want to customize our lives. We want to move in and out of where we are because the thing we value most is control over where we focus our attention. We have gotten used to the idea of being in a tribe of one, loyal to our own party.

Our colleagues want to go to that board meeting but pay attention only to what interests them. To some this seems like a good idea, but we can end up hiding from one another, even as we are constantly connected to one another. A businessman laments that he no longer has colleagues at work. He doesn’t stop by to talk; he doesn’t call. He says that he doesn’t want to interrupt them. He says they’re “too busy on their e-mail.” But then he pauses and corrects himself. “I’m not telling the truth. I’m the one who doesn’t want to be interrupted. I think I should. But I’d rather just do things on my BlackBerry.”

CHILD PHOTOS ONINE & PAEDOPHILES BY DAILY MAIL UK

CHILD PHOTOS ONINE & PAEDOPHILES BY DAILY MAIL UK

The mother of a child supermodel dubbed 'the most beautiful girl in the world' has attacked 'paedophiles' who say she is sexualising her daughter by posting provocative pictures of her.

Kristina Pimenova is just nine years old but has become a worldwide sensation after pictures of her triggered a storm of criticism on Facebook and Instagram.

Today her mother Glikeriya Pimenova, who runs the social media accounts and posted the pictures, hit back in an exclusive interview with MailOnline, saying: 'I do not accept those accusations about sexualisation of my child.

'I am certain in my mind all her photographs are absolutely innocent. I have never asked her to take this or that pose, and in fact I must say she does not especially like it when I am photographing her, so I do it quickly and when she doesn't notice.' 

Innocent pictures of Kristina, whose impressive achievements have already seen her starring in adverts for Armani, Roberto Cavalli and Benetton, became the subject of disturbing comments online.

But Glikeriya, 39, told MailOnline: 'You must think like a paedophile in order to see something sexual in these pictures, so it is time for you to see a doctor.