Safer Social Media

 Questions covered in this Episode:

1. How do you define hate speech?
2. Why do you think comment sections and Facebook groups seem to attract so much hate speech?
3. What are your thoughts about #IAmHere’s method of countering hate speech in the media? 
4. What types of people have you seen targeted online the most with hate, ridicule, and intolerance?
5. What personal experience do you have as either the recipient of, or contributor to, hate speech online?
6. In your experience, which social issues tend to attract the most “hatestorms” on social media? 
7. What are your thoughts about #IAmHere’s strategy?
8. Join Safer Social Media In pledging to peacefully counter online hate speech and bullying when you see it! What peaceful action will you take? 

Our guest is Karin Kay. She is an online activist for a better debate culture in social media, has been active in the civil courage initiatives #ichbinhier and #iamhere since early 2017. Volunteer work during the refugee crisis in 2016, and seeing the people arriving in Europe first hand, listening to the stories of other volunteers and their work, the rise of anti-refugee sentiment in the comment sections has led her to feel she had to do something against the hate.

QUESTIONS

1. What is #JegArHar/#IAmHere and what led to its birth?

2. How did you become involved?

3. What problem does your organization seek to solve? 

4. Why do you think Facebook has not resolved the problem itself?

5. What’s a recent example of #IAmHere in action on Facebook, and how successful were you?

6. How do you measure success for #IAmHere and #JegArHar?

7. What methods do you advocate to accomplish your goals?

8. What is the biggest challenge your organization faces?

9. Facebook wants to move toward end-to-end encryption, which removes them from the social interactions happening on their platforms. Do you think this will obviate the need for your group, or do you think you'll be needed even more?

10. How can people join your movement? 

 Questions covered in this Episode:

• Why have some people turned to outing trolls and cyberbullies on social media?
• Why haven't social media platforms solved the problem of hate speech and bullying thus far?
• If you learned who who behind the account of a disruptive and hateful troll, what would you do with that information and why?
• Could using public shaming as a form of vigilante justice actually make the problem of trolling worse?
• Does publicly shaming people for racially intolerant acts by applying nicknames like "BBQ Becky" or "Permit Patty" help in the fight against intolerance?
• What arguments are there against outing someone for their hateful or intolerant behaviour?
• Under what circumstances is it fair to shame and adult for hate speech they posted during their teen years?

"A form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort." :

The American Psychological Association.

So what is CYBERBULLYING?

Its taking that same aggressive behavior but using technology to conduct bullying via the internet

• Email

• Social media posts and comments on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc.

• Blog comments

• SMS messaging

• Messaging apps

• Virtual worlds (My "Alpha World" Jupiter story- don't follow strangers)

• Gaming platforms

• "Anonymous user" apps

 *What is an account takeover?*

1) It's when an unauthorized person uses your account for their own purposes

2) Sometimes they lock you out of your account completely

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*How do you know if your friend's account was taken over?*

1) You might get another friend request from them

2) You might get a strange request for money or be urged to do something for free money

3) The writing style, tone and/or vocabulary does not match your friend's

4) Their spelling or grammar is poor

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*How do I check whether a friend request really is fake?*

1) Reach out to your friend through email, phone or some other non-Facebook method

2) If the original account still exists, use that account to warn your friend

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*Besides impersonating you, what else can someone do with your Facebook account?*

1) They can take over your business page

2) They can access your data - friends list, messages, address, phone number, etc

3) They can connect your account to malicious apps and websites

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*What are some steps to take if your account is taken over?*

1) *If you can still get in,* change your password immediately, then log out of all devices

2)* If you cannot get in,* use the option to recover your username/password, such as entering your email address or phone number

3) Report the incident to the platform

4) Warn your friends about the takeover so they don't accept a fake friend request

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*How can I protect myself from an account takeover?*

Nothing is guaranteed, but try these:

1) Delete all social media accounts you no longer use, as they may still be associated with an old email address someone else may begin using

2) Keep your recovery email addresses and phone numbers up to date

3) Use strong passwords

4) Don't use the same passwords for all accounts or for the recovery email account

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*How do I choose a secure password?*

1) Try a password generator. You'll get a crazy password like x7gaF*QutEph$Tik&t4o, but no one will guess it!

2) If that's too daunting, here's another idea: think of a sentence at least eight words long, and use the first or last letter of each word, followed by a number and a symbol, if the platform allows it. Mix up the capitalization. An example: "I am truly the best damned parent ever" iaTtbdPe02#

3) Stay away from easy passwords like *123456,* *password,* and *qwerty* and dictionary words - they are easily guessed by scammers

4) Stay away from birth dates, names, social security numbers and other obvious info linked to you

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---THE TAKEAWAY--

• NEVER ACCEPT A DUPLICATE/SUSPICIOUS FRIEND REQUEST OR MESSAGE - check with your friend

through email/phone/in person first

• REPORT SECURITY ISSUES TO THE PLATFORM and have your friends do it, too (the more, the merrier)

• WARN YOUR FRIENDS about the scam account and ask them to report it as well (the more voices, the better)

• USE STRONG PASSWORDS and CHANGE 

THEM REGULARLY

• KEEP YOUR RECOVERY EMAIL AND PHONE NUMBER UP TO DATE

• USE TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION FOR EMAIL AND SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS 

Social Media Platforms shape how we respond on social media because they limit our responses to what suits their needs or agenda or algorithms. 

If you could add a button to the current options, what would it be?

Welcome to the Safer Social Media Show. We talk about how we as individuals can gain the ability to take a more critical look at what we see online and become more selective about how we use that information and how that leads to freedom from disinformation. Today we are talking about Naming and Shaming and Doxxing and staying Safe Online.

Questions covered in this episode are:

1. Can we first define what Partisan Media means?
2. 3 examples of how partisan journalism may benefit the public?
3. What qualifies as the press, does it include blogs and citizen journalism and does anti partisan journalism promote objectivity or not?
4. From a public perspective what are the key consequences of partisan journalism vs anti partisan journalism?
5. In summary what are the 3 key factors by which we can identify honest journalism?

Welcome to the introduction to the Safer Social Media Show. We talk about applying information literacy skills to online content and how that could empower us to critique what we see. It gives us the ultimate freedom from disinformation.