A crowd listens at a celebration of life for 14-year-old Carson Crimeni, in Langley, B.C. Disturbing video shared via social media before Crimeni’s overdose death last summer showed the teen struggling while people are heard laughing.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Children’s identity development through play is now being worked out online – so adults must consider what this means, and support learning in reflectiveness, relatedness and agency.
Can online posts help scholars – or police – tell the difference between people who are just ranting and those who plan real violence?
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Social media companies struggle to identify and remove hate speech when it’s posted. What can computer science reveal about how hate-filled texts and videos spread online?
Facebook Live can be fun – or really scary.
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Some people still think “trolling” refers to harmless fun. If we want to reduce abusive online behaviour, let’s start by getting our definitions right.
Beware the strings attached to social media and smartphone use.
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Why do people believe absurd lies about George Soros? The answer depends on the platforms you use, the media influencers you follow and the memes you see.
When online information causes fear, it can spark hatred and violence.
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Hysterical narratives promoting fear among some Americans may be more effective at sparking violence than hate speech is. Social media companies are expected to guard against both.
Online hate still rages, often in plain sight.
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The borderless nature of the internet makes it hard to pull the plug on social media talk that crosses the line.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes his seat to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington in April 2018 about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
New laws, new tools and new research is required to combat the rise in online hate. That means both regulating social media companies, and making use of technology to help measure compliance.
Rohingya Muslim women who fled Myanmar for Bangladesh stretch their arms out to collect aid distributed by relief agencies in this September 2017 photo. A campaign of killings, rape and arson attacks by security forces and Buddhist-aligned mobs have sent more than 850,000 of the country’s 1.3 million Rohingya fleeing.
(AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)
Facebook is unwittingly helping fuel a genocide against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Does Cuba’s internet model provide lessons to manage social media amid political chaos?
Private companies are policing online hate without independent oversight or regulation, which has serious implications and poses risks for basic human rights and freedoms.
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After violence in Charlottesville, internet firms are erasing bigoted content. But should private companies serve as unaccountable regulators and be responsible for policing complex social issues?