Many digital services currently hosted on social media platforms are critical to democracy. Governments must build alternative infrastructures that allow citizens to control their own data.
Radical change at Twitter shows how quickly strategies and values can shift in Big Tech. New Zealand needs to be less reliant on overseas solutions for its own digital infrastructure plans.
As Friday’s attack by an ISIS sympathiser in a New Zealand supermarket shows, ISIS’s extreme ideology still holds strong appeal for some disaffected Muslims living in the west.
Social media algorithms are akin to a licence to promote junk food or tobacco to children.
On the internet, anyone can express their views, like they can in Speakers’ Corner in London – it’s up to the audience to guard against disinformation.
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A scholar who has reviewed the efforts of nations around the world to protect their citizens from foreign interference says there is no magic solution, but there’s plenty to learn and do.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron launched the Christchurch Call initiative in Paris in May 2019.
EPA/Yoan Valat
The US, Russia and China haven’t backed the NZ-led Christchurch Call to crackdown on online extremism. Without them, and key non-western media, the initiative is unlikely to make enough difference.
My assessment is that there are about 150 to 300 core right-wing activists in New Zealand. This might sound modest – but proportionate to population, it’s similar to extremist numbers in Germany.
A push for digital peace is growing around the world.
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Dozens of countries and hundreds of firms and nonprofits are fed up with digital violence and are working toward greater cybersecurity for all.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron at the “Christchurch Call” summit, which delivered an agreement signed by tech companies and world leaders.
EPA/Charles Platiau
While the “Christchurch Call” summit has made concrete progress, we need to keep up the pressure on social media companies to become more transparent and accountable.
Jacinda Ardern and Immanuel Macron will head up the Christchurch Call meeting, aimed at coordinating international regulation of harmful online content.
Ian Langsdon / AAP
Being seen to lead is clearly an important political aspect of managing online content. But internet regulation must focus on creating policy that is clear, accountable, balanced and open to appeals.
Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication, Massey University