CS 492/692 - Spring 2022 - Week 8 Readings Summary

Here are some notes to remind you of the Readings of the Week, on the topic of computer-mediated communication.

We will spend the first part of the class with a dedicated discussion of online hate speech and will reflect on some questions of relevance to current events such as Black Lives Matter.

Note that there was a new wave which arose in 2020: various companies threatening to pull ads from Facebook if they did not make a better effort to remove hate speech from their platform and there is one paper on this in your set of readings.

Other topics from this week's readings include cyberbullying, which many of you chose to focus on in A1, and a host of other valuable concerns due to our reliance on computerized forms of communication.

Online dating: finding it less intimidating to meet online - also easier to break up through a text (callous?) - spouses checking up on each other's online history (trust)

Facebook: being used by employers, parents, universities so your profile may be examined (or photos posted of you by others) and does this make you concerned? - secret mood manipulation experiment and what users gave up as part of their contract with the service; there was an uproar about ethical use - challenges with massive numbers of Facebook friends and lightweight relationships but some feel obliged to keep up - do you enjoy being able to learn the blow by blow recounting of the lives of others?

Podcasts: have perhaps grown in popularity - are these welcome and valuable or simply an avenue for echo chambers to receive validation for their views? - who tends to have one?

Emails: employees being asked to delete email trails: is this acceptable? governments at times interested in seeing those trails - expected quick response from everyone ends up infeasible for some - reasonable to imagine better email etiquette?

Personal assistants like Siri, smart watches: will voice be the new interface to all of our computerized devices?

The Shadow Scholar: written by someone who makes a living writing essays and theses for others, for a fee - feasible given the way that computer mediated communication operates - from the rich and lazy to the incompetent - any concerns? any suggestions for what to do?

Cyberbullying: a truly significant social concern (causing suicides) that has come into being because of the technology we created which supports this kind of activity - could we have designed the Internet any differently or is there something that we can do right now which will help? (a challenge for you to think of technological solutions to fight this problem) - efforts to put in laws in Nova Scotia were quelled (against Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada) - debates in parliament (support for groups that educate and assist) - cross-boundary perpetrators - prevalent experience for many teens: victims and onlookers and bullies can all be examined - can parents play a role? can teachers?

Twitter, Elon Musk aned Free Speech: are you concerned about Musk's purchase of Twitter? - will free speech be promoted or will anti-social behaviour predominate? - is moderation necessary? - will opening up Twitter's algorithms generate problems, if this is done?

Hate speech online: directly involved in Christchurch attack (tool for terrorists? Internet-driven hate?) - manifestos and what to do about them - Reddit hate speech in wake of Charleston church shooting

Questions to consider: hate speech can be promoted online, reinforcing fringe groups with negative sentiment and yet actions to rise up against hate speech can also be supported online, in a major way - which use of online discussion is more powerful?

Announcements: - A5 and A6 are still on the go - special classes next week organized to have you all together online working in small groups to discuss and reflect: Jun 29 on gender balance and marginalization, as well as Jun 27 on video games : view the associated TV program if you can (5th Estate Top Gun)); we will form breakout groups on Zoom but those who typically gather in MC4040 for online are welcome to form a small face-to-face group which will then weigh in online, when invited - Jul 8 has a guest speaker online (please attend to give strong support); see Instructor folder on Piazza for more details - we still have a series of RPEs (attend and think of A6) as well as an interesting class where you get to tell us how to fix the problems caused by computerization : if I ruled the world - look ahead to Week 12 where A5 and A6 are on the go - in class on Jul 20 we have A5B: TAs will give you an A5 to evaluate