scholarly journals The topic of terrorism on Yahoo! Answers: questions, answers and users’ anonymity

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Alton Y.K. Chua ◽  
Snehasish Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Question Answering ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Community Question Answering ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
Cross Platform

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of community question answering sites (CQAs) on the topic of terrorism. Three research questions are investigated: what are the dominant themes reflected in terrorism-related questions? How do answer characteristics vary with question themes? How does users’ anonymity relate to question themes and answer characteristics? Design/methodology/approach Data include 300 questions that attracted 2,194 answers on the community question answering Yahoo! Answers. Content analysis was employed. Findings The questions reflected the community’s information needs ranging from the life of extremists to counter-terrorism policies. Answers were laden with negative emotions reflecting hate speech and Islamophobia, making claims that were rarely verifiable. Users who posted sensitive content generally remained anonymous. Practical implications This paper raises awareness of how CQAs are used to exchange information about sensitive topics such as terrorism. It calls for governments and law enforcement agencies to collaborate with major social media companies to develop a process for cross-platform blacklisting of users and content, as well as identifying those who are vulnerable. Originality/value Theoretically, it contributes to the academic discourse on terrorism in CQAs by exploring the type of questions asked, and the sort of answers they attract. Methodologically, the paper serves to enrich the literature around terrorism and social media that has hitherto mostly drawn data from Facebook and Twitter.

Big tech's anti-Trump activism to have limited impact

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
Content Type ◽  
White House ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Capitol Hill ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Media Firms

Significance Facebook has indefinitely suspended Trump from its main platform and Instagram, while Twitter has done so permanently for his role in instigating violence at US Capitol Hill on January 6. These developments spotlight the role of social media firms in spreading and tackling hate speech and disinformation, and their power unilaterally to shut down public speech. Impacts Democratic control of the White House and Congress offers social media companies a two-year window to ensure softer regulation. The EU will push its new digital markets legislation with vigour following the events at US Capitol Hill. Hard-right social media will find new firms willing to host their servers, partly because their user numbers run to millions not billions.

Advertisers up scrutiny of social media fake activity

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Share Price ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Regulatory Pressure ◽  
Advertising Budget ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Subject Advertising on social media. Significance There is growing alignment between regulatory pressure on social media companies to suppress fake accounts and the firms' commercial interest in attracting advertisers. Advertisers, who provide the bulk of social media platforms’ revenue, are beginning to question whether they are getting value for money when their advertising budget is spent on fake clicks. Impacts Action against fake activity on social media will cause a short-term dip in the firms’ share price. Demand will rise for 'influencers' who can show their following consists of genuine users. Some advertisers will distance themselves from social media due to the latter’s failures on tackling hate speech and polarisation.

New Indian online rules risk state overreach and abuse

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Online News ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Service ◽  
The Government

Significance The new rules follow a stand-off between Twitter and the central government last month over some posts and accounts. The government has used this stand-off as an opportunity not only to tighten rules governing social media, including Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and LinkedIn, but also those for other digital service providers including news publishers and entertainment streaming companies. Impacts Government moves against dominant social media platforms will boost the appeal of smaller platforms with light or no content moderation. Hate speech and harmful disinformation are especially hard to control and curb on smaller platforms. The new rules will have a chilling effect on online public discourse, increasing self-censorship (at the very least). Government action against online news media would undercut fundamental democratic freedoms and the right to dissent. Since US-based companies dominate key segments of the Indian digital market, India’s restrictive rules could mar India-US ties.

scholarly journals Terrorist Speech under Bills C-51 and C-59 and the Othman Hamdan Case: The Continued Incoherence of Canada’s Approach

2019 ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Kent Roach
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Immigration Law ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms

It is argued that neither the approach taken to terrorist speech in Bill C-51 nor Bill C-59 is satisfactory. A case study of the Othman Hamdan case, including his calls on the Internet for “lone wolves” “swiftly to activate,” is featured, along with the use of immigration law after his acquittal for counselling murder and other crimes. Hamdan’s acquittal suggests that the new Bill C-59 terrorist speech offence and take-down powers based on counselling terrorism offences without specifying a particular terrorism offence may not reach Hamdan’s Internet postings. One coherent response would be to repeal terrorist speech offences while making greater use of court-ordered take-downs of speech on the Internet and programs to counter violent extremism. Another coherent response would be to criminalize the promotion and advocacy of terrorist activities (as opposed to terrorist offences in general in Bill C-51 or terrorism offences without identifying a specific terrorist offence in Bill C-59) and provide for defences designed to protect fundamental freedoms such as those under section 319(3) of the Criminal Code that apply to hate speech. Unfortunately, neither Bill C-51 nor Bill C-59 pursues either of these options. The result is that speech such as Hamdan’s will continue to be subject to the vagaries of take-downs by social media companies and immigration law.

Groupon: let's make a deal?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-38
Author(s):  
Susan White
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Initial Public Offering ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Public Offering ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
Term Performance

Synopsis Groupon, an online coupon company, was one of many companies that considered an initial public offering (IPO) during what might be a second technology/internet/social media IPO boom in 2011. Some companies chose to postpone their IPOs, while others took advantage of the media attention focussed on technology companies, and in particular, social media firms. Should investors hop on the tech IPO bandwagon, or hold off to better evaluate the long-term prospects of tech companies, and in particular social media companies? Would the valuation of Groupon justify an investment in IPO shares? Research methodology The case was researched from secondary sources, using Groupon's IPO filing information, news articles about the IPO and industry research sources, such as IBIS World. Relevant courses and levels This case is appropriate for an advanced undergraduate or MBA corporate finance or investment elective. Most introductory finance classes do not have the time to cover later chapters in a finance textbook, where information about IPOs is generally found. It could also be used at the end of a core finance course, where the instructor wanted to introduce this topic through a case study of a hard-to-value internet-based company to illustrate the difficulties in setting IPO prices. The case could also be used in an equity analysis class, an entrepreneurial finance class or an investment class, to spur discussion about valuing an internet company and choosing appropriate investments for pension fund investing. This case could also be used in a strategy class, focussing on the five forces question, and eliminating the valuation question. Theoretical basis There is a great deal of literature about IPOs and their long-term performance. An excellent source is Jay R. Ritter's research, http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter, which has a longer time period and more data than could be contained in this case. IPO puzzles include persistent undervaluing of IPOs; in other words, the offer price is lower than, and sometimes substantially lower than, the first day close price. A second issue is the generally poorer long-run performance of companies after their IPO when compared to similar firms that did not do an IPO.

Media or Corporations? Social Media Governance Between Public and Commercial Rationales

2020 ◽  
pp. 249-268
Author(s):  
Daniela Stockmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Active User ◽  
Corporate Governance Codes ◽  
Over Time

In public discussions of social media governance, corporations such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter are often first and foremost seen as providers of information and as media. However, social media companies’ business models aim to generate income by attracting a large, growing, and active user base and by collecting and monetising personal data. This has generated concerns with respect to hate speech, disinformation, and privacy. Over time, there has been a trend away from industry self-regulation towards a strengthening of national-level and European Union-level regulations, that is, from soft to hard law. Hence, moving beyond general corporate governance codes, governments are imposing more targeted regulations that recognise these firms’ profound societal importance and wide-reaching influence. The chapter reviews these developments, highlighting the tension between companies’ commercial and public rationales, critiques the current industry-specific regulatory framework, and raises potential policy alternatives.

Digital transparency and public accountability in Spanish universities in online media

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 701-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Ramírez ◽  
Ángel Tejada
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Relational Capital ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spanish Universities ◽  
Spanish Public Universities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent and quality of online intellectual capital (IC) disclosure released via websites and social media in relation to university stakeholders’ information needs in Spanish public universities. In addition, this paper examines whether there are differences in the online IC disclosure according to the type of university. Design/methodology/approach The study applies content analysis and a survey. The content analysis was used to analyse the websites and social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram) of all Spanish public universities in the year 2019, whereas the survey was submitted to all members of the Social Councils of Spanish public universities. Findings The findings indicate that university stakeholders attach great importance to online disclosure of specific information about IC. However, the findings emphasise that Spanish universities’ website and social media content are still in their infancy. Specifically, this study found that the quality of disclosed information on IC in public universities’ websites is of low level, particularly with regard to the disclosure of relational capital. The study found that the information provided by Spanish public universities via social media mainly concerns the structural and relational capital. Likewise, the results of this paper evidence that the larger and more internationally focused universities reveal more online information on IC. Practical implications The results of the research may be beneficial for managers of higher education institutions as a basis for developing adequate strategies addressing IC disclosure through the websites. In order to satisfy the information needs of university stakeholders, Spanish universities can be recommended to focus on reporting higher-quality information on financial relations, students’ satisfaction, quality standard, work-related knowledge/know-how and collaboration between universities and other organisations such as firms, local government and society as a whole. Originality/value This study explores two innovative tools to provide IC disclosure in the higher education institutions context, namely, websites and social media, whereas previous studies focused on traditional tools as annual report. Likewise, this study considers the quality of this information.

The reshaping of Chinese consumer values in the social media era

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyi Duan ◽  
Nikhilesh Dholakia
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Initial Public Offering ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Consumer Values ◽  
Chinese Consumer ◽  
Public Offering ◽  
Chinese Social Media

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how, in China, postings on social media site Weibo reflect as well as accelerate the reshaping of traditional values. As Chinese social media extend their reach outside China, the displays of visible desire, hedonism and materialism could influence global consumption ethos. Design/methodology/approach – Using interpretive content analysis, over 250 Weibo postings of 8 selected Weibo users, from the network of one of the authors, were identified, coded and interpreted. The users were selected based on their frequency, variety and expressiveness of postings. Findings – Weibo is playing a critical role in transforming Chinese consumer values. Via Weibo, personal consumption experiences are available for public gaze. Consequently, desire for powerfully signified objects and experiences is more visible; “enjoy now” is turning out to be an appreciated life attitude, and materialism and hedonism are growing irresistibly. As a result, the traditional Chinese consumer values – suppressing desire, delaying gratification and thriftiness – are losing ground in Chinese society. Also, as Weibo makes the influence of the elite as well as electronic word-of-mouth very powerful, the values of the elite and grassroots groups are actually converging instead of being separated by substantial chasms that have existed historically. Practical implications – Sina Weibo had a US initial public offering (IPO) of its stock in April, 2014, and many other China-based Internet firms were getting set for US IPOs. This paper provides unique insights for Chinese social media companies’ potential global impact. Future social media contexts would be shaped by collision as well as convergence of Asia-centric and USA-centric platforms. This paper lays the groundwork for studying such interactions. Originality/value – In-depth interpretations of Weibo postings contribute to our understanding of how social media impact Chinese society now and would potentially affect global societies later. This is a pioneering study on the massive influences of social media on the macro-level consumer behavior.

Text mining stackoverflow

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Joorabchi ◽  
Michael English ◽  
Abdulhussain E. Mahdi
Keyword(s):  
Text Mining ◽  
Question Answering ◽  
Computer Programming ◽  
Educational Data Mining ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Graph Visualization ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Community Question Answering ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field

Purpose – The use of social media and in particular community Question Answering (Q & A) websites by learners has increased significantly in recent years. The vast amounts of data posted on these sites provide an opportunity to investigate the topics under discussion and those receiving most attention. The purpose of this paper is to automatically analyse the content of a popular computer programming Q & A website, StackOverflow (SO), determine the exact topics of posted Q & As, and narrow down their categories to help determine subject difficulties of learners. By doing so, the authors have been able to rank identified topics and categories according to their frequencies, and therefore, mark the most asked about subjects and, hence, identify the most difficult and challenging topics commonly faced by learners of computer programming and software development. Design/methodology/approach – In this work the authors have adopted a heuristic research approach combined with a text mining approach to investigate the topics and categories of Q & A posts on the SO website. Almost 186,000 Q & A posts were analysed and their categories refined using Wikipedia as a crowd-sourced classification system. After identifying and counting the occurrence frequency of all the topics and categories, their semantic relationships were established. This data were then presented as a rich graph which could be visualized using graph visualization software such as Gephi. Findings – Reported results and corresponding discussion has given an indication that the insight gained from the process can be further refined and potentially used by instructors, teachers, and educators to pay more attention to and focus on the commonly occurring topics/subjects when designing their course material, delivery, and teaching methods. Research limitations/implications – The proposed approach limits the scope of the analysis to a subset of Q & As which contain one or more links to Wikipedia. Therefore, developing more sophisticated text mining methods capable of analysing a larger portion of available data would improve the accuracy and generalizability of the results. Originality/value – The application of text mining and data analytics technologies in education has created a new interdisciplinary field of research between the education and information sciences, called Educational Data Mining (EDM). The work presented in this paper falls under this field of research; and it is an early attempt at investigating the practical applications of text mining technologies in the area of computer science (CS) education.

scholarly journals Extreme Speech, Democratic Deliberation, and Social Media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey W. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Alternative Mechanism ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Moral Responsibilities ◽  
The Law ◽  
Democratic Discourse

Social media are now central sites of democratic discourse among citizens. But are some contributions to social media too extreme to be permitted? This entry considers the permissibility of suppressing extreme speech on social media, such as terrorist propaganda and racist hate speech. It begins by considering the argument that such restrictions on speech would wrong democratic citizens, violating their freedom of expression. It proceeds to investigate the moral responsibilities of social media companies to suppress extreme speech, and whether these ought to be enforced through the law. Finally, it explores an alternative mechanism for combatting extreme speech on social media—counter-speech—and evaluates its prospects.

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