A Content Analysis of Social Media Sites’ Terms of Use and Community Guidelines (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorien Abroms
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sexual Content ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Health Related

BACKGROUND Digital technologies have become part of the fabric of daily life in the United States, where a majority of adults use at least one social media site (SMS). Many of the leading SMS have published regulations, including their “Terms of Use” and “Community Guidelines,” that provide guidance on the posting of content by users and the actions SMS will take in response to violations. OBJECTIVE The goal of this analysis is to determine how public health related topics are addressed by SMS in their policy documents. METHODS A list of leading SMS in the US was compiled: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. Both the Terms of Use and the Community Guidelines documents were analyzed for each site (N=7). A coding scheme was developed using an iterative process to identify guidelines set by SMS regarding content areas relevant to public health. The final coding system was comprised of 8 distinct guidelines (3 related to regulations and 5 related to actions taken in response to violations) covering 11 public health content areas. Documents were coded by two independent coders for the presence of each guideline. RESULTS With respect to regulations, in the Terms of Use, all 7 sites had general regulations that prohibited the posting of objectionable content generally, while 3 or fewer sites had regulations for specific content areas. In the Community Guidelines, 6 out of 7 sites had general regulations, and all sites had regulations against content that included threats and violence, bullying/harassment, hate speech, sexual content overall and sexual content related to children, and that came from dangerous organizations. No sites had prohibitions against misinformation. With respect to actions taken in response to violations in the Terms of Use, all sites stated they would remove content that violated regulations and 6 sites stated the same in the Community Guidelines. Additional actions that were commonly mentioned in the Terms of Use included suspending accounts or banning users. Less common in the Terms of Use was referral to law enforcement and providing resources. Additional actions that were commonly mentioned in the Community Guidelines included suspending accounts or banning users, providing resources and referral to law enforcement. Less common, though present, was adding a warning. CONCLUSIONS SMS policy documents prohibit the posting of public health related content by its users and specify actions that will be taken by the service provider for violations. A better understanding of SMS policies could allow for the identification of omitted topics of interest and advocacy for their inclusion.

Trend of Parental Refusal or Delay of Childhood Vaccinations

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meagan Marie Daoust
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Health Consequences ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Parental Refusal

The healthcare trend of parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccinations will be investigated through a complex Cynefin Framework component in an economic and educational context, allowing patterns to emerge that suggest recommendations of change for the RN role and healthcare system. As a major contributing factor adding complexity to this trend, social media is heavily used for health related knowledge, making it is difficult to determine which information is most trustworthy. Missed opportunities for immunization can result, leading to economic and health consequences for the healthcare system and population. Through analysis of the powerful impact social media has on this evolving trend and public health, an upstream recommendation for RNs to respond with is to utilize reliable social media to the parents’ advantage within practice. The healthcare system should focus on incorporating vaccine-related education into existing programs and classes offered to parents, and implementing new vaccine classes for the public.

Where Is the Fairness in Canadian Cannabis Legalization? Lessons to be Learned from the American Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-418
Author(s):  
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Drug Law ◽  
Drug Law Enforcement ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Drug Prohibition

Canada has received praise and international attention for its departure from strict cannabis prohibition and the introduction of a legal regulatory framework for adult use. In addition to the perceived public health and public safety benefits associated with legalization, reducing the burden placed on the individuals criminalized for cannabis use served as an impetus for change. In comparison to many jurisdictions in the United States, however, Canadian legalization efforts have done less to address the harms that drug law enforcement has inflicted on individuals and communities. This article documents the racialized nature of drug prohibition in Canada and the US and compares the stated aims of legalization in in both jurisdictions. The article outlines the various reparative measures being proposed and implemented in America and contrasts those with the situation in Canada, arguing, furthermore that the absence of social justice measures in Canadian legalization is an extension of the systemic racism perpetuated under prohibition.

scholarly journals When crises collide—Policing a pandemic during social unrest

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Marie C. Jipguep-Akhtar ◽  
Tia Dickerson ◽  
Denae Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Disparate Treatment ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

In 2020, the United States was shaken by concurrent crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and protests for racial equality. Both crises present significant challenges for law enforcement. On the one hand, the protests for racial equality drew the public’s attention to the criminal justice system’s disparate treatment of Blacks and other people of colour. On the other hand, the pandemic required the expansion of police duties to enforce public health mandates. To ensure compliance, law enforcement may arrest, detain, and even use force to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases that may have an irreversible impact on human health, such as COVID-19. Policing, however, is at a critical point in America. The government is expanding police powers for the sake of public health; all the while, public indignation about police (ab)uses of power has fuelled calls for its defunding. It is therefore important to explore Americans’ views of policing pandemics during periods of social unrest, focusing on the recognition that socio-economic and racial inequities shape perceptions. The data from this project derives from surveys with Americans on the specific topics of race, policing, racial protests, and COVID-19. The study finds that Americans perceive the police as legitimate overall; however, there are divergences based on race, gender, and marital status. These differences may contribute meaningful insights to the current discourse on police legitimacy in America.

scholarly journals Engagement with COVID-19 Public Health Measures in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Social Media Analysis from June to November 2020 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisy Massey ◽  
Chenxi Huang ◽  
Yuan Lu ◽  
Alina Cohen ◽  
Yahel Oren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
The Us

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has continued to spread in the US and globally. Closely monitoring public engagement and perception of COVID-19 and preventive measures using social media data could provide important information for understanding the progress of current interventions and planning future programs. OBJECTIVE To measure the public’s behaviors and perceptions regarding COVID-19 and its daily life effects during the recent 5 months of the pandemic. METHODS Natural language processing (NLP) algorithms were used to identify COVID-19 related and unrelated topics in over 300 million online data sources from June 15 to November 15, 2020. Posts in the sample were geotagged, and sensitivity and specificity were both calculated to validate the classification of posts. The prevalence of discussion regarding these topics was measured over this time period and compared to daily case rates in the US. RESULTS The final sample size included 9,065,733 posts, 70% of which were sourced from the US. In October and November, discussion including mentions of COVID-19 and related health behaviors did not increase as it had from June to September, despite an increase in COVID-19 daily cases in the US beginning in October. Additionally, counter to reports from March and April, discussion was more focused on daily life topics (69%), compared with COVID-19 in general (37%) and COVID-19 public health measures (20%). CONCLUSIONS There was a decline in COVID-19-related social media discussion sourced mainly from the US, even as COVID-19 cases in the US have increased to the highest rate since the beginning of the pandemic. Targeted public health messaging may be needed to ensure engagement in public health prevention measures until a vaccine is widely available to the public.

Rumors on the Net: A Brackish Suspension of Speech and Hate

2019 ◽  
pp. 174387211988012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Wagner ◽  
Sarah Marusek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Cyber Culture ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mob Mentality

The legitimacy of public memory and socially normative standards of civility is questioned through rumors that abound on online social media platforms. On the Net, the proclivity of rumors is particularly prone to acts of bullying and frameworks of hate speech. Legislative attempts to limit rumors operate differently in France and throughout Europe from the United States. This article examines the impact of online rumors, the mob mentality, and the politicization of bullying critics within a cyber culture that operates within the limitations of law.

scholarly journals Comprehensive scoping review of health research using social media data

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. e022931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Taylor ◽  
Claudia Pagliari
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Health Related Research ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Google Search ◽  
Media Data

IntroductionThe rising popularity of social media, since their inception around 20 years ago, has been echoed in the growth of health-related research using data derived from them. This has created a demand for literature reviews to synthesise this emerging evidence base and inform future activities. Existing reviews tend to be narrow in scope, with limited consideration of the different types of data, analytical methods and ethical issues involved. There has also been a tendency for research to be siloed within different academic communities (eg, computer science, public health), hindering knowledge translation. To address these limitations, we will undertake a comprehensive scoping review, to systematically capture the broad corpus of published, health-related research based on social media data. Here, we present the review protocol and the pilot analyses used to inform it.MethodsA version of Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage scoping review framework will be followed: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying the relevant literature; (3) selecting the studies; (4) charting the data and (5) collating, summarising and reporting the results. To inform the search strategy, we developed an inclusive list of keyword combinations related to social media, health and relevant methodologies. The frequency and variability of terms were charted over time and cross referenced with significant events, such as the advent of Twitter. Five leading health, informatics, business and cross-disciplinary databases will be searched: PubMed, Scopus, Association of Computer Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, alongside the Google search engine. There will be no restriction by date.Ethics and disseminationThe review focuses on published research in the public domain therefore no ethics approval is required. The completed review will be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary open access journal, and conferences on public health and digital research.

scholarly journals #Hookahlife: The Rise of Waterpipe Promotion on Instagram

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyad Ben Taleb ◽  
Linnea I. Laestadius ◽  
Taghrid Asfar ◽  
Brian A. Primack ◽  
Wasim Maziak
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
The United States ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Hookah Smoking ◽  
Positive Light

Introduction. Hookah smoking is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, especially among young adults. The growth of social media has also enabled sharing of opinions, experiences, and marketing related to hookah via user-generated content. Aim. To evaluate the portrayal and promotion of hookah on Instagram and to highlight public health challenges created by this content. Method. A qualitative content analysis was performed on a sample of 301 Instagram posts made with the hashtags #hookah or #shisha in October 2016. Results. Of the 301 coded posts, 279 were relevant to hookah. These posts were most commonly made by hookah lounges/bars (29.2%) and individual users (27.6%). Posters were most commonly from Russia (38.5%), the United States (18.6%), and Germany (10.7%). A total of 63.8% of the posts were promotional in nature; 19.7% of posts contained hashtags that expressed hookah identity or community (e.g., #hookahlife); 35.5% of posts associated nightlife activities with hookah smoking and 33.0% portrayed hookah smoking as a social activity. Only one post (0.4%) mentioned that hookah might have negative health effects. Likes were more common on posts depicting novel rather than traditional hookah designs ( p = .027). Conclusions. Images from Instagram may help in understanding health behaviors such as hookah smoking. Our results suggest that domestic and international hookah promotion is common on Instagram. Instagram posts cast hookah in an overwhelmingly positive light and may normalize hookah use through associations with nightlife, community, and hookah identity. Policy makers and researchers should explore approaches for reducing the volume of promotional posts and tailoring counter-marketing to the specific themes presented on social media.

Establishment of an International Information Network for International Health Development: A Survey of Public Health Administration and Management Courses

1994 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-190
Author(s):  
Gregory P Loos
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Public Health Administration ◽  
Course Work ◽  
Course Syllabi ◽  
Level Of Instruction

The purpose of the present study was to examine the content emphasis of courses of public health administration and management (A & M) among member institutions of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH), to determine comparability of curricula across campuses. A survey of course syllabi from, APACPH schools was conducted by three separate reviewers to identify topical subject matter presented in general and specialty A & M courses delivered to graduate students at each campus. Based on this review, three synthetic general content A & M courses, and one specialty A & M course (i.e. Hospital Administration) were created as a basis for inter-campus cross-institutional comparisons conducted by the author. Despite the number of courses provided by the different APACPH institutions, specific content areas consistently appeared across institutions, suggesting possible foundational A & M content for public health students. In general, there was much better coverage of similar topics at the introductory level of instruction, and much greater consistency was observed across institutions that provided course work addressing the administration of hospitals. Several recommendations are made for further studies of other content areas, and for the development of minimum training content areas as a basis for cross-institutional studies. Asia Pac J Public Health1994;7(3):183-90.

scholarly journals Mining and Validating Social Media for COVID-19-Related Human Behaviors between January and July; An Infodemiology Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashlynn R. Daughton ◽  
Courtney Diane Shelley ◽  
Martha Barnard ◽  
Dax Gerts ◽  
Chrysm Watson Ross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Human Behaviors ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Health authorities can minimize the impact of an emergent infectious disease outbreak through effective and timely risk communication, which can build trust and adherence to subsequent behavioral messaging. Monitoring the psychological impacts of an outbreak, as well as public adherence to such messaging is also important for minimizing long term effects of an outbreak. OBJECTIVE We used social media data to identify human behaviors relevant to COVID-19 transmission and the perceived impacts of COVID-19 on individuals as a first step toward real time monitoring of public perceptions to inform public health communications. METHODS We develop a coding schema for 6 categories and 11 subcategories, which includes both a wide number of behaviors, as well codes focused on the impacts of the pandemic (e.g., economic and mental health impacts). We use this to develop training data and develop supervised learning classifiers for classes with sufficient labels. Classifiers that perform adequately are applied to our remaining corpus and temporal and geospatial trends are assessed. We compare the classified patterns to ground truth mobility data and actual COVID-19 confirmed cases to assess the signal achieved here. RESULTS We apply our labeling schema to ~7200 tweets. The worst performing classifiers have F1 scores of only 0.18-0.28 when trying to identify tweets about monitoring symptoms and testing. Classifiers about social distancing, however, are much stronger with F1 scores of 0.64-0.66. We applied the social distancing classifiers to over 228 million tweets. We show temporal patterns consistent with real-world events, and show correlations of up to -0.5 between social distancing signals on Twitter and ground-truth mobility throughout the United States. CONCLUSIONS Behaviors discussed on Twitter are exceptionally varied. Twitter can provide useful information for parameterizing models that incorporate human behavior as well as informing public health communication strategies by describing awareness of and compliance with suggested behaviors. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document