For this week’s class, we read three articles and listened to two podcasts. Our topic was about digital activism and social justice. In our article, “The Cute Cat Theory Talk at ETech” reads, “Cute cats are collateral damage when governments block sites. And even those who could care less about presidential shenanigans are made aware that their government fears online speech so much that they’re willing to censor the millions of banal videos on DailyMotion to block a few political ones.” The Tunisian government blocking an entire website for a couple of political ones is ridiculous, they are so afraid of what their own citizens think about them they block the few who are speaking about it. In turn, this creates even more hatred for their government as those who just use the site for funny videos or cat videos as the government is blocking what they enjoy. Technology censorship is everywhere, even in our country, we just don’t think about it. In one of our podcasts, Digital Activism Ted Talk, the woman speaking asks what makes success possible. She then starts talking about Twitter, how Twitter is the key. In Turkey, they censor twitter and use that to their advantage, in 2013 the Turkish government bombed and killed thirty-four Kurdish smugglers near the border. The government censored all media relating to this until a journalist bought a plane ticket and flew to where this occurred. There he saw lines of coffins with relatives holding them, he was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do; so he took a photo of this and it went viral. The government couldn’t censor the mass amount of people now posting about it. Move forward a year later when Turkey’s Gezi protests happen, it started as a protest about a park being razed but became an anti-authoritarian protest. The government also censored this, by instead showing what was happening which most media outlets were covering they broadcasted a documentary of penguins. She goes on to talk about how people are becoming more aware of this and instead now posting photos about what is going on. The internet has good and bad sides to it and people are learning how to use the good side more, by using digital technologies to help them organize protests, rallies, and just to help others out. Today we see many uses for technology and among those is the power to speak out, we must engage it more and let our voices be heard. 

We see social media influence us and among those Twitter has done a lot. We go on Twitter to rant or to see whatever our President is ranting about this time. On Twitter, we have popular hashtags which can either be people being sarcastic or talking about a social cause we need to pay more attention to. In “These 10 Twitter Hashtags Changed the Way We Talk About Social Issues” we read, “The latter usage has been instrumental in the transition of movements from online to the real world.” This can not be more true, by drawing out attention to issues we learn more about them and our feelings about them. The hashtag #PrayforJapan drew our attention to an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011. This killed nearly 2,000 citizens of Japan, people around the globe came together and talked about this tragedy. This hashtag was used 2,000,000 times, I honestly don’t know if anyone didn’t hear about this. This is just one example of people using their voice. The devastation that occurred during this time was horrific and hurt so many people, but at the same time, it got everyone together and talking about it. By using our voice for good reasons people will take notice and more people can see your point of view.

Do you have something you’re scared to speak about? Did you hear about Japan, what were your thoughts?

Weekly News:

This week’s topic is about digital activism and social justice and we have articles and ted talks that went along with that theme. The article called “the cute cat theory of Digital Activism, another article called ” The Digital Culture Shift: From scale to power,” ” twitter hashtags that changed the way we talk about social issues,” and lastly a Ted talk called ” Digital Activism Ted Talk.” In Digital Activism Ted talks, It talks about technology and social movements and how it may be weakening them. She asks the question about what makes success possible and turns to twitter and twitter is the key. Turkey got used to the power of twitter and the Turkish media would censor things from the public. So in result of that, a man took the censored pictures and posted it on twitter and it went viral. The news covered penguins  instead of the protests that were taking place . They used the internet to show protest and things like this go back a long way according to the ted talk. She talked about how twitter and the internet equals global attention so it is globalized. Then she goes on to say that the hopes the people rightfully raise are not really matched by what they were able to have at the end and so she asks the question.. As digital technology makes things easier for movements, why haven’t successful outcomes become more likely as well? She states that easier to mobilize does not mean easier to achieve goals. Are we overlooking slow and sustained? The ending finalizes that taking the fast route, aka social media, and not replacing the benefits of slower work does not give you that long term success. Figuring out collective thinking, having a strategic plan and strategy and goal and structure is the way to achieve such goals. 

After viewing this, I came to realize that she made excellent points as to why these protests and things with such massive attention and hype end up phasing out in a way and why we don’t see long term changes or things being productive afterwards. There is no organizational collective thinking and planning and are constantly being done. They don’t necessarily have the next step in place in order to make efficient moves from what they have done. All of this being done is for short term, unfortunately, instead of longer term. I didn’t realize that all of the protests and things like that consisted of internally until I listened to the ted talk. It is very eye opening to me and how technology plays a role as well.

We also were assigned articles such as ” twitter hashtags that changed the way we talk about social issues,” and ” The Digital Culture Shift: From scale to power.’ With the first article, it talks about hashtags that are directed towards social issues and things of that nature. For example, #prayforJapan, #bringbackourgirls, and #ice bucket challenge to name a few. All of this to spread awareness and to spark the discussion of things going on today and possibly make a change. With the second article, it talks about the Digital culture shift and from scale to power. It is a good read and it touches on blm and other movements as well as the notion of voices being heard. 

News Article: Here is link that discusses technology and social justice

Digital activism is all this generation knows. A better term is “Internet activism which is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular information to large and specific audiences as well as coordination.”While Martin Luther king gathered his audience by word and building an organization that was fighting for the same cause, We use the internet to find people interested in supporting a cause. Only genuine believes and supporters stay and fight for the cause for however long they have to. With Digital activism, only causes that go viral and have a strong support system around it will get news media attention for the time being, and then it’s is on to the next viral cause that people are fighting for on the internet. For example, The black lives matter movement protest that erupted due to the death of Geroge Floyd. He died May 25, 2020, and the news only broadcasted that protest was happening but they didn’t really explain the cause to the fullest extent until the protest for Ahmaud Arbery who was killed February 23, 2020, and Breonna Taylor who was killed by cops on March 13, 2020. This brought cities together in a way because they knew they were fighting for the same cause which was police brutality and how cops were getting away with it. Videos of George Floyd’s death surfaced right when the incident was happening. But Ahmaud Arbery’s death video surfaced around the same time and that has people angry because not only is coronavirus killing a lot of people but now cops are doing so too. Not only two and half weeks from when Geroge Floyd was killed by cops, Rayshard Brook was also killed by cops on June 12, 2020, at a Wendy’s drive-through.

As people are trying to quarantine, people felt the urge and need to protest which was the only way that they felt they could fight for change. Social Media was the way people communicated to know when and where to meet up for the protest but the thing is social media is public so anyone such as cops can interfere and that is when protesters were met with violence. The sad part is that news outlets were not telling or showing people how violent the protest actually was. People were seeing how violent police were from social media of people that were at the once peaceful protest. People lost eyes due to rubber bullets that were designed to be aimed at the floor first but were being directly aimed at protesters’ faces. I feel like we need to find a way other than protesting to make a change because the government does not care. It wasn’t until weeks after the news outlets decided to cover what was really happening at the protests and even reporters were being targetted. But that media coverage didn’t last long as it should which is the point sociologist Zeynep Tufekci was making in her TED talk.

Weekly news: More information on BLM coverage

This week we touched on the topic of that of cell phones and how much privacy we do and don’t have.. in this case, we clearly have none but we think we do. We watched the movie Snowden, read articles such as ” How long til hackers start faking leaked documents”, “5 worst data hacks” and ect. All along the theme of technology, hacking, and how vulnerable we really are to technology and the data it possesses. In the movie Snowden, The leading actor Is a CIA agent and he has seen all the in’s and out’s of the operations. They could track anyone and know everything about them, their friends, family and all in a matter of seconds. They can read your text messages, emails, your social media posts along with private messages. They could also have control of your camera on computers without you, the user, having to turn it on. He thought all this tracking and knowing every information was about preventing terrorist attacks, bombs, and national threats.. but instead he found that it was also about economic and social control and they have all the information about regular citizens, not just ” bad people.” H decided to leak all this information to journalists and is then considered a traitor and is essentially a fugitive from the law. 

In the movie, it shows that the government and the CIA can basically see and track everything you’re doing. It can see all messages, emails, your web camera (live), and they can see who you’ve talked to and everything that you’ve posted. Basically your entire life. Now in the movie his girlfriend tries making the argument that she has nothing to hide.. however that is a lie essentially. Everyone does whether they admit it or not. You wouldn’t give someone all your credit card information right? or see private photos? It is about the security of your life and privacy.  The government claims they do this to provide security to others and to the nation.. or do they cross the line to what is essentially private ? An example of crossing the line is being able to hack the camera off computers and see you without consent or knowledge. I think a lot of us don’t realize that we are vulnerable when it comes to technology. None of us really have that privacy we think we have.. instead were secretly exploited without our knowledge. I am uneasy about this because on one hand I think it’s important to have security when it comes to serious threats but on the other I would like my privacy and things kept out of view of others.. I now keep a post-it note on my laptop because of this movie. 

In the article “How long til hackers start faking leaked documents” discussed how hackers leak private and sensitive information out to the world and exposing them… the next step is what if they alter that information before leaking it? As if leaking information isn’t bad enough.. false information is way worse and could have very dangerous and bad impacts. The other article is “5 worst data hacks”It talks about breaches and hacks with yahoo accounts, the Marriott, friend finder networks, and Equifax. No one is safe.

News: Here is link to more information about hacking and cyber information.

“In many ways, it’s surprising that this kind of manipulation hasn’t been seen before.” Really? Is this true? This just seems impossible. Why wouldn’t there by any? I guess maybe I think people who want to watch the world burn really want to see it suffer. Maybe they think the truth is scarier than a lie? Especially nowadays and last weeks cancel culture, just about anything, truth or not, can ruin a persons reputation, it’s surprising that hackers wouldn’t just want to rip some people down. I vaguely remember the Sony hacks, and only because The Interview was pushed back because of it and my friends and I were excited to see it. I personally never really read into it or learned anything more about the hack. As far as I know, I’ve never been hacked but I know people that have and nobody really talks about it. Every once in a blue moon someone I follow on Instagram will get hacked and post Ray Bans 20 times in one day. But then whoever it was just fixes the account or deletes it and that’s the end. Nothing ever comes of it. Nobody mentions it ever again.  I don’t understand computer science or how the hell to “hack” anything, and I don’t get the point of hacking instagrams like that either. Hacking is a lot like the creation of the internet- something my brain just won’t wrap around. 

The ABC Top 5 Worst Hacks really freaked me out. I definitely had a Yahoo account in the years they got hacked and I’ve definitely stayed at a Marriott Starwood. I mean to my knowledge I’ve never had anything weird happen but hey good luck to anyone who wants to steal my identity, you’ll return it. I guess I get the point of hacking, but I feel like there are easier ways to take money or whatever else people look for.

Snowden. I don’t remember this movie being released, and I don’t remember this true story happening either. And I like things like this and the people in it I don’t know how I missed this one. I also did not run and put tape over my laptop camera (or put my phone in the microwave), did any of you? It’s scary to think that the government can just stalk its citizens and have the ability to turn on laptop cameras to begin with but honestly, it’s not that bad. I guess I know how exciting my life is, and it’s not so exciting that someone else would want to watch me through cameras or my web browsing or anything else. This is the thing, yes it might freak some people out but I guess from my point of view I’d rather be casually spied on rather than nothing at all. Because if they’re doing it to little old me, then that means they’re really keeping an eye on the people that matter. The bad people in this world. And that’s what this is for, not to spy on people for porn (even though some fetishes really walk the line), or for other realistically trivial things.

Weekly News: As much as I hate politics, this is the breaking news for today.

This week’s bring the new topic in discussion and I am eager to share the details with you all. What I have found most interesting is the movie “Snowden” and rest of the reading and listening materials are sufficient to understand the drawbacks of the modern technology.

Starting from the movie “Snowden”, I have found the story quite interesting and this movie as a whole gives a different concept to the audience in order to understand that what we actually see or assume is not actually happening in the real world. The person Edward has been shown as a whistleblower. Why he choose to become a whistleblower? Because while working within the system he find some of the matters unethical that the government was applying on the general public and he thought that this should be stopped or at least the people should have known about it. He moved to Hong Kong and there is with the help of a journalist planned this whole thing. The most interesting part of the movie beings when Snowden is still with the programme, he is using the traditional dark arts of spy craft, cosying up to the banker and blackmailing him in order to help trace the Saudi money.

This movie has given us all a lesson if we understand it and can be taken as an eye opening fact that no matter what you are doing, how many privacy policies you apply or whatever you do. Whole of your life is being captured by the government. Some people might argue that the government is not doing the right thing but I think that if the government is doing this then it must be for our own privacy in real manner. I mean did you ever get a call from any of the agency when they find you cheating on your girlfriend and threat you to stop doing so? Of course not! Because that’s not what their business is. There major concern is with the security of their country and when the agencies find anything fishy about a person then they take actions. So, my question to you all is Will you prefer a private life or a secure life?

Coming towards the reading materials like “Hacking Forgeries”, “The Messy Media Ethics Behind the Sony Hack”, “5 Worst Data Hacks”. All of these articles are showing the data hacking that have been made in order to make some black money or to publically hit a reputable person. After reading these articles, I felt so sorry for the people who have faced such miserable situations. Still I think that every person either a general man or a politician or even a movie star, each and every person holds the right to have some private life and no one has to interfere in their personal affairs. The technology is not making the advancements so that we should use it to destroy the lives of people. The main reason is to make ease for the people.

For this week’s news article, I have found this article in favor of my discussion that how we can make a positive sue of technology and can prevent the hacking.

https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/security-essentials/hacker-prevention

This weeks viewing Snowden, was very interesting to watch and with no Black Mirror episode this week was a let down because they very interesting and entertaining to watch. Snowden is about the consequences of leaks and hacks, and if Edward Snowden’s actions were justified or not. During our class time we went over a lot on how technology impacts society in a negative way

In this film Edward Snowden is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I recognized immediately from other great movies he has been in. The film starts in the year 2004 where Edward Snowden has been training to join Special Forces until he his injured with a fractured tibia. With this new problem he thinks of a way where he still can help, protect, and serve the country as he goes to work for the CIA. He gets a spot on the CIA Training Center which is located in Virginia. His first task was for him and the other trainees to go to different cities and setting up a covert communications network. With Snowden’s intelligence he was able to accomplish this task in as little as 38 minutes, instead of the average time which was anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. Because of this accomplishment he secures a job in a foreign country, where he also brings an online girl with him. After seeing him move out to foreign country the film skips ahead to 2013 where is in Honk Kong and this is where we see him talking to journalists about the US government. Right after this it rewinds to 2007 where he is posted in Switzerland and it is about one of the first assignment he receives, which was to mainly to take care of the CIA’s security network. He is forced to resign this assignment because of using wrong methods of coercion with a superior. There is then a position that opens up in Hawaii that is dealing with Chinese hackers, which may be a great opportunity for Snowden because he has been struggling lately with epilepsy. Snowden creates multiple programs which proved to be critical in collecting terrorist threats, the only problem with these programs was that they were being abused by the CIA and NSA where they would collect data on any US citizen. Snowden does not like the fact that he is apart of something so intruding and violating others so he decides to take all data collected and transfer it to a micro disk and by talking to journalists all this information was out in the open for everyone to see what the CIA and NSA were doing.

With the release of this story it blew up and went viral and had a great affect on the Obama administration, but Snowden is in Russia awaiting a fair trial in the US. With Edward Snowden’s actions it is possible to debate if he did a great thing by letting the people know or how he turned on the government in the form of treason. It is tough to give a definitive answers because I do think that people should know this information, but at the same I can see why the government has to monitor stuff that is happening online, although they do abuse this and go to far in my opinion.

Weekly News Article: 7 Ways to Prevent a Hacking or Phishing Attack on Your Company

This article shows us a couple of different ways we can protect ourselves from being scammed and to reduce the chances of being in those situations.

Usually we have a episode “Black Mirror” to watch, but this week we watched Snowden. The basis of this week I feel was centered around Edward Snowden and if his actions were just or unjust. Before I get into my take on this week’s material it is only right I provide some background of Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden who is better known as an American whistleblower worked for the CIA and leaked classified information from the NSA. The information he leaked brought world attention to digital privacy and security on now is a global issue. Of course like any other situation there is two sides to what he did. Some may view Snowden as courageous and some may view him as a traitor.

Regardless of what you think of Snowden what he did took a lot of courage. Agree or disagree with his actions he is primarily the reason why most of us tape the cameras on our computers because we feel the government is watching us. He gave us insight on how the government was watching what we do through our technology. The information Snowden leaked did reveal that the programs the NSA had were unconstitutional and were being done without the public’s knowledge. As shown in the movie Snowden just like other people felt this action went against democracy which is a government of the people.

On the contrary many people view Snowden as a traitor as well. He fled the country with tons of files of top secret information and gave it to another country to leak. This gave other countries a lot of information on the U.S and their programs and could have been very dangerous. It also was illegal to do what he did with the information he was given from his job. He was sworn to not give out that information when taking that job position and leaving the country and doing so went against his oath.

After watching the movie and reading the articles for the week I think both sides are in the wrong. I know this is an easy answer to come by, but when you look at the point of both sides they both knew they were in the wrong. Snowden knew what he was doing was wrong because he had to flea the country to do so and the government knew what they were doing was wrong because after Snowden did what he did they made it a crime and supposedly stopped doing this act. The government got what they were dishing out in some type of way because from invading the privacy of their own people now other countries were now invading theirs with this leak. As a U.S citizen maybe Snowden should not have leaked the information the way he did, but if he didn’t the government would have just continued to invade our privacy without any type of warning or consent of the people. The question I leave everyone with is do you believe Edward Snowden is an American hero or a whistle blowing traitor?

WEEKLY NEWS: lhttps://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/politics/president-donald-trump-walter-reed-coronavirus/index.html

How ironic is it that after the presidential debate when Trump was bashing Biden for wearing a mask regardless of his distance from people he gets the virus a few days later?

Our sixth week in Social Media & Society has introduced us to the film Snowden, the consequences of leaks & hacks and the 5 Worst Data Hacks. The class discussion covered and contributed heavily on the paranoia surrounding technology and its implications on society.

The film, Snowden, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden. Other members of the cast include Melissa Leo (Laura Polirtas), Zachary Quinto (Glenn Greenland) and Nicolas Cage as Hank Forereste! The thriller was directed by Oliver Stone in 2016 and covers the shadowy career of Edward Joseph Snowden.

In 2004, Edward Snowden was training to be in the Special Forces when he slipped & fractured his tibia. He then turns his attention to the Center Intelligence Agency (CIA) to find a new way to serve his country. His self-intellect (although mostly self-taught) is phenomenal and secures himself a spot at the CIA Training Center in Virginia, called “The Hill”. Snowden and his fellow colleagues are assigned to individual cities and each tasked with building a covert communications network. The instructor indicates the average time of 5 hours and no more than 8 hours. Snowden completed the entire process of building, destroying, and rebuilding his network in an impressive 38 minutes. His potential and intelligence lands him his first post in a foreign country. He brings his online-sweetheart, Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), to join him. The movie then shortly fast forwards to 2013 in Hong Kong, where Snowden is explaining and handling sensitive information to journalists regarding the United States government. It then quickly jumps to one of Snowden’s earliest assignments in Geneva, Switzerland 2007. He was placed there to maintain the CIA’s security network and ends up aiding superiors with dirty methods of coercion. This pushes Snowden to resign and pick up several different positions in various countries. Senior Officer O’Brian reveals an operation in Hawaii that revolves around counterattacking Chinese hackers. With Snowden currently struggling with epilepsy, a move to Hawaii sounds promising and a fresh start with Lindsay. Snowden’s creation of projects such as the Epic Shelter and Heartbeat, were instrumental in the collection and extraction of terrorist threats. However, the CIA and NSA were abusing this power and collecting information on all citizens of the United States. Snowden ultimately becomes disillusioned with what he is a part of and smuggles all relevant data onto a micro disk. With the help of several journalists, the information was released to the public on June 5th, 2013. The story instantly went viral and had a major impact on the Obama administration. In the end, Snowden is granted asylum in Russia and awaits an equal and fair trial in the United States.

Is Edward Snowden a terrorist or national hero? Although his acts were considered treason, I believe he was providing information that should have been made available to the public. I do agree that it is important and the duty of the government to monitor certain people’s digital footprint. However, to record everyone’s voice and their online tendencies seems unnecessary.

Lastly, Marriot experienced a data breach affecting 500 million hotel guests. A hacker got into their system and gained access to people’s names, phone numbers, birthdates and even passport information. I found his breach particularly creepy as this leaking of information transpired over several years! Hackers are the new villain in a world surrounded by technology. I hope we find a happy medium with our consumption of technology and can hold scammers accountable.

Published by: Samuel Erickson

Weekly News Article: The USA today touches on several good tips to combat scamming.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5042873002

All week I’ve been asking myself this question of whether or not we are free. Now thats a hard question to ask because it’s very broad. In my day to day life I believe that I am free, i’m able to go where I please and relatively do what I want, but what about on the internet? My theory is that we are all slaves to the internet and technology and this isn’t by choice or anything, but rather forced on by our own government. This week in class we were told to watch a movie called Snowden and this movie really changed my view on our government. It didn’t click in my head until after watching the movie of how little to no freedom we have on this technology that we love so much. Then this scary fact hit me, we have no where to hide. The government is able to track all our movements and they know what we are gonna do before we even do it. It almost reminds me of this app parents can get on there phones to track there children called Life360. This app allows the parents to track there kids wherever they are, which I don’t agree with doing, but thats a topic for a different time. I believe that by the government being able to track are movements, look at our calls and emails, this has in turn stripped us of our freedom not physically, but mentally on a bigger scale than we realize.

As I was saying about the movie Snowden it consists of this man named Edward Snowden who is a contractor. He leaves his job at the National Security Agency after finding out mountains of data is being assembled to track all forms of digital communication. Not only from foreign and terrorists groups, but from regular Americans too. So he decides to leak all this information to the public because of his belief that the public has a right to know that the U.S government track everything that U.S citizens do. He does all of this while knowing he’d never be able to go home, see his friends, family and his girlfriend again. It’s pretty inspiring to be honest, you have this guy who has everything to gain from getting this information, but instead of handing it over to other governments he gives it to the people and lets them decide what to do with that information.

One of the articles I read this week about the Sony hacks and the reason for Sony being hacked in the first place is very similar to why government data was leaked. It also goes over the media aspect of it and how the media processes what information to send out into the public. This happened to Snowden as well when deciding who to trust to leak this information. Even when he did find people to put this information out there, they had to worry about the government stopping them. Suppressing this kind of information does not represent freedom, but instead takes it away. A quote from the movie that I like and think ties this all together is “Whatever justification you are selling yourself on, this is not about terrorism. Terrorism is the excuse, this is about economic and social control and the only thing you’re really protecting is supremacy”. Snowden saw that what the government was doing was wrong and acted upon it how I think most of us would. He believed one of the many true conspiracy theories, everything you do you can be and could be used to track you.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/us/breonna-taylor-grand-jury-recordings/index.html

This article is about the officers involved in the botched raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed announced themselves as police multiple times before forcing their way into her apartment, according to recordings of grand jury testimony released friday.