Responding to Deficiencies in the Architecture of Privacy: Co-Regulation as the Path Forward for Data Protection on Social Networking Sites

Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like are a ubiquitous part of contemporary culture. Yet, as exemplified on numerous occasions, most recently in the Cambridge Analytica scandal that shook Facebook in 2018, these sites pose major concerns for personal data protection. Whereas self-regulation has characterized the general regulatory mindset since the early days of the Internet, it is no longer viable given the threat social media poses to user privacy. This article notes the deficiencies of self-regulatory models of privacy and contends jurisdictions like Canada should ensure they have strong data protection regulations to adequately protect the public. However, while underscoring the economic value of Big Data technologies, it posits regulation does not necessarily need to come at the cost of economic prosperity. By adopting a co-regulatory model based on regulatory negotiation, various stakeholders can come together and draft robust and flexible data protection regulations, including both tailored rules and oversight mechanisms. Beginning with a survey of the challenges and opportunities of Big Data and social networking sites (I), this article then canvasses the data protection framework of three jurisdictions, namely the United States, Canada, and the European Union (II). Finally, it shows the clear advantages of co-regulation as a regulatory paradigm and offers an outline for the regulation of social networking sites using regulatory negotiation (III)

Vortex of the Web. Potentials of the online environment

This volume compiles international contributions that explore the potential risks and chances coming along with the wide-scale migration of society into digital space. Suggesting a shift of paradigm from Spiral of Silence to Nexus of Noise, the opening chapter provides an overview on systematic approaches and mechanisms of manipulation – ranging from populist political players to Cambridge Analytica. After a discussion of the the juxtaposition effects of social media use on social environments, the efficient instrumentalization of Twitter by Turkish politicans in the course of the US-decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is being analyzed. Following a case study of Instagram, Black Lives Matter and racism is a research about the impact of online pornography on the academic performance of university students. Another chapter is pointing out the potential of online tools for the successful relaunch of shadow brands. The closing section of the book deals with the role of social media on the opinion formation about the Euromaidan movement during the Ukrainian revolution and offers a comparative study touching on Russian and Western depictions of political documentaries in the 2000s

Human Being as a Communication Portal: The construction of the Profile on Mobile Phones

The incorporation of mobile phones in the daily life of human being not only alters space and time dimensions, but it also changes the perception and the way we relate with the ecosystem. Methodology. The state of the art is analyzed from the technological concept of intimacy, used by Boyce and Hancock, which describes the levels of interaction between man and technology. Then, a methodology to explore issues increasingly pressing is proposed, especially, concerning the delimitation of public and private spheres and the interaction in the common space. Results and conclusions. Following in particular the theories of Castells, Heidegger, Meyrowitz and Habermas; a set of categories for deepening the concepts of spatialization, willingness and profile are articulated. These concepts are identified as key elements in this first stage of the project for the analysis of the human being as a communication portal

Challenging Harmony to Save Nature? Environmental Activism and Ethics in Taiwan and Japan

To save nature, environmental activists in Taiwan and Japan are willing to change their behavior and society itself, challenging “harmony” in their communities. This paper explores the tension between globally relevant environmental activism and localized cultural traditions. A wide-encompassing understanding of environmental activism is proposed, based on a tentative typology of different positions regarding environmental sustainability. This paper follows some environmental activists’ journey to moral protest, through semi-structured interviews and participatory observation conducted between 2015 and 2019. It then discusses the results in light of some traditions of thought in Taiwan and Japan. Interviewees often tell about an event in their life that triggered a moral shock and exacerbated their feeling of urgency. Activists’ sense of purpose motivates them to navigate psychological and social obstacles such as social disapproval and exclusion. They also tend to build a “community of activism” through social media to support each other and develop strategies

Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong: Smartphone culture and activism

This article focuses on contemporary smartphone culture and activism performed by female Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. There are around 330.000 migrant workers in Hong Kong, and wherein 150.000 originated from Indonesia. Most of the Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong work in the domestic sectors: housemaid, babysitter, and career. They are obliged to live with their employer and start working from five mornings until late at night for six days a week. The smartphone is their primary medium in keeping a connection with friends and families back home and reduces social isolation. Interestingly, Indonesian migrant workers also use smartphones for activism to support migrant workers’ rights issues. Despite the isolation issues and the social limitations experienced by the Indonesian migrant workers’, this article aims to explore the following questions: how is smartphone culture developed in Indonesian migrant workers’ communication activities in Hong Kong? How is the smartphone, in particular, used as the medium for activism? Using the netnography method, this research explores the smartphone culture and activism performed by Indonesian migrant workers’ in their online routine. Smartphone usage has become an interesting phenomenon where this device has changed the cultural habits and further forms a new cultural pattern. Social media platforms and chat applications on smartphones have facilitated Indonesian migrant workers’ more comprehensive access to information. It is found that social media access is essential for Indonesian migrant workers to ease loneliness and further used as their medium of existence in the virtual world. Furthermore, they also create virtual identities through social media, share experiences and views through online platforms, and organize protests or other forms of activism. Sulistyaningsih’s case is a clear example of how communication access was crucial for Indonesian migrant workers at a time of danger. The diverse forms of communication technology have allowed them to create compelling messages. This activity provides evidence that Indonesian migrant workers still can be creative despite their long working hours

Expostos e duplamente vigiados: o caso do Facebook

Tal como acontece com a maioria dos artefactos tecnológicos, também a emergência do Facebook gerou diversas teorias, que variam entre o mais exacerbado otimismo e um tremendo ceticismo. O facto de o seu surgimento estar muito associado ao exibicionismo e ao voyeurismo, tem sido campo fértil para o desenvolvimento de ideias feitas e pré-concebidas, que dificultam o desvendar da sua complexidade. O objetivo deste artigo é esboçar uma panorâmica sobre o Facebook, que reporte para os valores, objetivos e interesses que estão na origem do seu desenvolvimento e para a vigilância social que este artefacto tecnológico veio possibilitar de um modo mais alargado, desafiando-se teses que apontam para a total novidade desta rede e para a homogeneidade dos seus usos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Facebook during American election Campaigns: a tool for mobilization, fundraising and voting influence

U.S politicians have introduced a modern way in their electoral campaigns through the use of social media sites in order to transmit their political messages for mobilization purposes. In fact, such sites allow candidates to market themselves and to facilitate interaction with their potential voters. Social media constitutes a shift in the media landscape, patterns a new guide for political communication, and allows candidates craft their political messages. Many scholars posit that traditional methods are losing ground in our modern times. Social networking sites like Face book show their successful use allowing reaching voters and influencing their choices. The purpose of this article is concerned with the analysis of the role this modern way plays taking the American election campaign case. As an example, Barack Obama’s campaign is taken as an exampl

Investigating the online and offline contexts of day-to-day democracy as participation spaces.

Citizen-led participation in democracy is explored through studying the online and offline spaces where people work together to influence those in power and improve their communities. The concept of a participation space is introduced to describe these contexts. The spatial theme guides the research, from literature, through methodology, to findings. Case studies of three community/activist groups provide the data to identify participation spaces and model these as Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STINs) (Kling, McKim, & King, 2003). These participation spaces include social media, email, and blogs, as well as paper media and offline spaces, such as rooms. The STIN models of these participation spaces reveal that the characteristics which influence their use for participation are the same for online and offline spaces. These can be understood in terms of spatial characteristics: the spaces’ perceived boundaries and inhabitants, combined with ownership and access, including costs. As well as recording the roles of these spatial characteristics, the participation space models map the day-to-day activities of participation. Collating these activities reveals that participation primarily takes the form of communication: organising and increasing solidarity, sharing information, encouraging involvement, and trying to influence events. The models also reveal that most of these activities are non-public. This sociotechnical study describes the relationship between the activities of local, grassroots democracy and the characteristics of the online and offline spaces where it takes place