Social media censorship in times of political unrest: a social simulation experiment with the UK riots

Following the 2011 wave of political unrest, extending from the Arab Spring to the UK riots, the formation of a large consensus around Internet censorship is underway. The present paper adopts a social simulation approach to show that the decision to “regulate”, filter or censor social media in situations of unrest changes the pattern of civil protest and ultimately results in higher levels of violence. Building on Epstein's (2002) agent-based model, several alternative scenarios are generated. The systemic optimum, represented by complete absence of censorship, not only corresponds to lower levels of violence over time, but allows for significant periods of social peace after each outburst

From the virtual class to the click workers: the transformation of work into service in the era of digital platforms

Ao contrário da fantasia de uma classe virtual de trabalhadores livres do trabalho, a flexibilidade dos serviços de microtarefas, realizadas por todos os usuários de plataformas digitais, beneficia apenas as empresas do Vale do Silício.Contrary to the fantasy of a virtual class of workers free from work, the flexibility of micro-task services, performed by all users of digital platforms, only benefits companies in the Silicon Valley

An ethno-computational approach to friendship in SNS

This paper focuses on how different configurations of privacy settings, content-sharing and culture traits display affect the formation of online friendship networks. By adopting an innovative ethno-computational methodology (as developed in Tubaro & Casilli, 2010), we draw on a participant observation carried out on the popular SNS Facebook to subsequently inform an agent-based model. The ethnographic phase suggests the hypothesis that culture traits display plays a crucial role in the creation of ties and is motivated by social capital maximisation. This hypothesis is problematized through the analysis of simulated network data. New dynamics emerge from the computational interaction of agents, such as 1) a tension between bridging and bonding dynamics; 2) relevance of privacy settings; 3) anomie. As homophily alone fails to account for tie formation and maintenance, Lahire’s (2004) notion of “cultural dissonance” – through which individuals adhere to their group culture while preserving their “self distinction” – can be productively conjured up to explain friendship formation in online social networks

Légitimation intersubjective de la présence en ligne et formation de réseaux sociaux: Une approche ethno-computationnelle

Cette étude porte sur le rôle de la légitimation des descriptions physiques et culturelles (apparence, goûts, styles, préférences) dans les interactions assistées par ordinateur au sein d‟un site généraliste de networking social. En employant une méthodologie mixte empirique et computationnelle, un modèle multi-agents est construit à partir d‟une observation participante menée dans le réseau Facebook. Les résultats préliminaires montrent comment différentes configurations de trois éléments (présentation de soi, options de protection de la vie privée et partage de contenus) affectent inégalement les modalités de légitimation réciproque de la présence et – finalement – concourent à la formation de réseaux d‟« amitié » en ligne aux configurations multiples. En analysant les caractéristiques structurelles (densité, centralité, homophilie, etc.) ainsi que les dynamiques de construction de relations sociales entre bridging et bonding, des stratégies sociales visant à trouver un équilibre entre adhésion aux valeurs du groupe et « dissonance culturelle » font surface

Anthropologie et numérique: renouvellement méthodologique ou reconfiguration disciplinaire?

Cette contribution pose les questions soulevées par l’utilisation des technologies numériques au sein des sciences humaines et sociales. Le numérique va-t-il transformer les pratiques et les méthodes au sein de ces disciplines ou favoriser la création de nouvelles disciplines et de nouvelles méthodes?This contribution raises questions around the utilisation of the digital technologies in Social Sciences and Humanities. Could Digital technologies transform methodologies and practices in these disciplines or could it foster the creation of new disciplines and within new methodologies?Esta contribución plantea problemáticas acerca del uso de las tecnologías digitales en la Ciencias Sociales y las Humanidades. ¿Las tecnologías digitales van transformar las metodologías y prácticas de éstas disciplinas o van a promover la creación de nuevas disciplinas y nuevas metodologías

“You see yourself like in a mirror”: the effects of internet-mediated personal networks on body image and eating disorders

Body image issues associated with eating disorders consist of attitudinal and perceptual components: individuals’ dissatisfaction with body shape or weight, and inability to correctly assess body size. While prior research has mainly explored social pressure from media, fashion, and advertising, we aim to uncover how personal networks, also encompassing internet-mediated interactions, bear upon body image. We estimate these effects with data from a survey of users of websites on eating disorders, including indicators of their body size and body image, and maps of their networks of connections. A bivariate ordered probit accounts for the joint distribution of attitudinal and perceptual body image dimensions depending on network characteristics. Results, confirmed by in-depth interviews, provide evidence that personal networks affect body image concerns, and show that this influence varies significantly by body size. Personal networks, as may be formed also (but not only) online, can be conducive to positive body image development

IMAGE: A New Tool for the Prediction of Transcription Factor Binding Sites

IMAGE is an application tool, based on the vector quantization method, aiding the discovery of nucleotidic sequences corresponding to Transcription Factor binding sites. Starting from the knowledge of regulation regions of a number of co-expressed genes, the software is able to predict the occurrence of specific motifs of different lengths (starting from 6 base pairs) with a defined number of punctual mutations

Online networks of eating-disorder websites: why censoring pro-ana might be a bad idea

Dr AA Casilli from Telecom ParisTech, F Pailler from the Edgar Morin Centre and Dr P Tubaro from the University of Greenwich demonstrate how the reshaping and censoring of online ana-mia communities is bad news for health care providers and policy makers

Eating disorders in the social web: An ego-network analysis approach

The recent upsurge of online websites, blogs and forums advocating anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (“pro-ana” and “pro-mia”) challenges health practitioners and policy makers. While glorifying eating disorders as a lifestyle and even a choice, the authors of these websites often provide fellow sufferers with distinctive forms of emotional and practical support, and may thus have appeal to many. The proposed paper presentation is part of a larger project addressing the role of online and offline social networks in the spread and maintenance of eating disorders, through a sociological comparative study of ana-mia subjects in France and the United Kingdom. Emphasis is on the impact on health and nutrition of computer-mediated communication networks relative to face-to-face social interactions. The paper focuses on the fieldwork methodology, dataset construction and preliminary results. An online survey, due to be in the field shortly, invites users of ana-mia websites to provide information on their online and offline personal networks as well as their health-related advice network, together with control questions on their eating behaviours, health status and IT usage. Network information is elicited through a computer-based participant-aided sociogram drawing tool, through which respondents represent the entire set of their relationships to others as they see it, and obtain an optimised visualisation at the end. The well-acknowledged appeal of network visualisations is used here to improve survey experience and –indirectly- to enhance data quality. The survey is then followed by in-depth interviews, to be held via computer-assisted videoconference tools, to better understand the reasons underlying relational and health behaviours