Thursday, October 7, 2010

WEEK 10 LECTURE
CENSORSHIP / PRIVACY IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Today's lecture focused on the issues involved in the censorship and privacy of social media such as Facebook. Since the dawn of time there have been debates about censorship and privacy, but in the time of online predators, cyber bullying and identity theft do we have to more aggressive in the way we protect ourselves online. When people hear the word censorship they automatically think of restrictions, anti - freedom of speech and anti-freedom of expression. But how does the terms of censorship and privacy fit in with the ideologies of the internet and social media, for the whole point of the internet is to give the everyday person freedom in the way they access and share content and information.

If we take a look at Facebook, one of the giants in the social media world we can see a never-ending tug of war between the freedom of expression through discussing your life with your virtual community of online friends and the desire to protect all content posted within the site. But once something is posted or uploaded to net of Facebook isn't it then public property and is free to be used however some random user wants. To answer this question we can look back to the topic discussed in week's seven lecture which discussed the role of creative commons licences. Which basically is an add-on or an extension of the liberties of the copyright law, which states that copyright law applies to online content as well. So there is a fine line Facebook and it's contemporaries must try to walk, where they offer their users certain freedoms while protecting how their content and information get used and accessed. According to the website 50 interesting Facebook Facts is that a recent survey of 500 top colleges found that 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social networking sites such as Facebook to evaluate applicants. Thirty-eight percent of admissions officers said that what they saw negatively affected the applicant. Whether this use of social media is ethical or not remains to be seen but more to the point is the reality of how easy it is to access information from social media.

Facebook has tried to appease users and regulators worried about this fact by moving closer to a Bill of Privacy Rights. On the Electronic Frontier Foundation website there is an article that states a number of different recommendations that Facebook should implement. Recommendation one being users being allowed the option of receiving a notice in their newsfeeds whenever a selected application requests data, rather than just allowing them to see only the last data request. While perhaps few users would adopt this option, those that did could evaluate and rate those apps and tell the world about any unusual behavior. Recommendation two was the option to show a more complete history of an app's behavior, beyond just the last information that was pulled, would allow users to see the frequency and patterns in application information requests and would help them make better choices about which apps they want to continue using. It remains to be seen if there can be a successful symbiotic relationship between freedom and censorship/privacy on Facebook.

But Facebook isn't the only source of censorship/privacy issues there is also issues surround some content controll software labeled an internet filter. So what essentially is an internet filter, according to web defintions, the internet filter is a content-control software, also known as censorware or web filtering software, and is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader, especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web. As stated earlier the whole purpose of the internet is to give the everyday person freedom in the way they access and share content and information, so isn't this software going against the very nature of the internet? According to Microsoft the internet filter is there to protect parents, guardians, or school administrators and to protect kids from viewing inappropriate material as well as identify which Web sites kids can visit. Well isn't this software a good thing for isn't it just a net nanny on steroids, or are we being sold something that's dressed up as something else.

The website No Clean Feed - Stop Cencorship in Australia paints a rather different more sinister picture. They claim that much more than just innappropraite material but rather movies, websites and video games designed for user's sixteen an up. Despite this software being according this website universally condemned by the public, ISP's and state governments it seems Australia is determined to force this filter onto every Australian web user. If we as responsible internet user's really wanted to protect ourselves, our children, work colleagues and everybody else from innappropriate material, we don't need this invasive software. For we already have numerous software options already in widespread public use that does what the authorities claim the internet filter does, without the blatant censorship being grievously forced upon the rest of the consenting public.
REFERENCE LIST
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