Incidents that may have been mere hiccups a few years ago today can go viral in an instant, causing a massive backlash and leaving some of the biggest companies wrong-footed.
Peter Meylakhs, Russian National Research University The Higher School of Economics ; Yadviga Sinyavskaya, Russian National Research University The Higher School of Economics et Yuri Rykov, Russian National Research University The Higher School of Economics
In Russia, social networks have given a new life to the conspiracy theory that HIV-AIDS is a global hoax.
Even though Facebook claims to be a global community, its rise has come at the expense of online subcultures for marginalized people, from body modification enthusiasts to drag queens.
When leaders of weak democracies use social media to connect with their constituents, people feel heard. But Twitter responses won’t give citizens what they need.
While Facebook’s Zuckerberg suggested as much recently, companies run like autocracies cannot fulfill technology’s promise of reinvigorating the democratic process.
How do you know your search results or social media feeds aren’t being manipulated for political purposes? It’s not a crime to do so. But we believe it should be.
This is election year for several African countries and there’s a need to ensure social media isn’t used to incite violence. But can governments be prevented from restricting citizens’ rights?
You might think that trolling on the internet is done by a small, vocal minority of sociopaths. But what if all trolls aren’t born trolls? What if they are ordinary people like you and me?