social media
Social Media Addiction: How to detach yourself from the cycle
In today’s world of internet connectivity, it's only normal that social media usage will surge. There are about 4.48 billion social media users in this world. That’s more than half the entire population of the world. But the proliferation of social media brings a new set of problems. Nowadays the young generation is suffering from the tendency of increased impulsiveness to scroll through social media. In this article, we will take a deep dive into social media addiction and how to get rid of it.
What is social media addiction?
Have you ever gone to bed and impulsively reached for your phone? Spent hours scrolling through different social media and messing up your sleep schedule in the process? If it’s a yes, then chances are you’re suffering from a case of social media addiction. You’re not alone, however.
Read How social platforms are dealing with the Taliban
In 2017, a survey found that there are about 210 million people with social media addiction. This was from a time when the world didn’t have to grapple with the pandemic. In its wake, the pandemic has left most of the office, education, and other works to an online platform, making people increasingly prone to becoming addicted to social media and online platforms.
It might not feel much like it at first but it’s part of human behavioral addictions. At one point, you will get so into scrolling through newsfeeds and posts and pictures that it will eventually end up hampering other parts of your life.
So, is there a way out of this? Well, there are a lot of ways to go about social media detoxification. We’ll talk about some of the most effective ways to get your life back to normalcy.
Read A set of directives for judicial officials for using social media
How to Get Rid of Social Media Addiction
Turn the notification off
The first you can do to get out of the cycle is to turn the notification off. You cannot even start the process of detachment if your phone lights up with a notification every other hour. The tendency to check who twitted or shared a post will eventually start a domino effect where you end up spending more time than you should.
Some people count “like” and interactions in their posts. If you have that tendency, we suggest you stay away from your phone for a few hours after posting anything. Do not let the urge to check interactions get to you. Turning off the notification will minimize the distraction and make way for a gradual transition from the addiction.
Read Dating changed during the pandemic; apps are following suit
Do not go to sleep with your phone
More than 45% of social media users said that they go to sleep while scrolling their phones. This is a very bad practice with some serious side effects. You not only deprive your brain of the rest, but the blue light from the phone messes with the eyes and hampers your sleep schedule.
The only way to get around this problem is to stop taking the phone to bed. Considering the addictive nature or simply something that became a habit, not taking the phone to bed isn’t something that’s going to be easy.
You can keep the phone on the other side of your bedroom or somewhere that’s out of your reach when you’re in bed. It’ll take some time getting used to. But once you do, you will be able to gradually cut off the impulsive need to browse the phone.
Read: How to Stop Your Online Shopping Addiction?
Say no to social media while in bed
Similar to going to bed with a phone, some too many people instinctively reach for their phone once they wake up. This is also a bad habit and compulsive behavior. The extreme dependency on social media content means you are inadvertently getting dragged into the platform without your knowledge.
Try to not use your phone until after you’ve completed your morning routine. Too much social media content in the morning will only make you distracted throughout the day.
Avoid overthinking social media appearance
This is probably the most common problem when it comes to social media platforms. You are not alone if you spend too much time thinking about what to post and how to post. Most social media users have this urge to look better and sound better in social media to get better validation. In reality, you’re using up precious time from your daily life overthinking about social media. This is a form of passive addiction to social media.
Read Dutch data protection authority fines TikTok over privacy
The stress and anxiety related to this validation might be too much to handle. Some people might even fall into depression because of this stress. As a social media user, the last thing you should worry about is what people think about what you post. The process of destressing starts from detachment from social media appearance.
Find replacement
Think of a time when neither digital devices nor social media existed. The earliest example of a digital handheld device dates back to the 90s and that of social media dates back to the 2000s. So, what about the people before that time? Didn’t they have a fulfilling life? They probably had a better life considering the analog options they had.
This is also something that you need to do. Rather than getting engrossed with social media, try and find your hobbies again. There are effective and productive alternatives to social media like reading books or gardening. The more you indulge in analog hobbies, the more you’ll be able to detach yourself from social media.
Read Boithok: Bangladeshi video conferencing app for online meeting
Digital detox
The best solution is to stay away from social media completely. Once you’ve learned to take the small steps, it's time you focused to take considerable time offs from all types of social media platforms. The entire process is known as a digital detox.
It won’t happen overnight. You will have the urge to get back at the start. But the more time you spend away from social media, the more life becomes productive and stress-free. You can gradually minimize your usage to a healthy level, or you can cut it off completely, the choice is yours.
Bottom Line
Overcoming social media addictions is easier said than done. Just like other behavioral addictions, you’ll have to take small steps to get away from them completely. While it might be seemingly easy, you’ll still have to follow through with each of the steps for successful detoxification. We hope this article helps you to divest yourself of the addiction.
Read How To Be A Popular Instagram Influencer
How social platforms are dealing with the Taliban
As the Taliban negotiates with senior politicians and government leaders following its lighting-fast takeover of Afghanistan, U.S. social media companies are reckoning with how to deal with a violent extremist group that is poised to rule a country of 40 million people.
Should the Taliban be allowed on social platforms if they don’t break any rules, such as a ban on inciting violence, but instead use it to spread a narrative that they’re newly reformed and are handing out soap and medication in the streets? If the Taliban runs Afghanistan, should they also run the country’s official government accounts?
And should tech companies in Silicon Valley decide what is — and isn’t — a legitimate government? They certainly don’t want to. But as the situation unfolds, uncomfortable decisions lie ahead.
Also read: Who are the Taliban?
DOES THE TALIBAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
The Taliban quickly seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a two-decade war. The insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the U.S. and its allies melted away.
The last time the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube did not exist. Neither did MySpace, for that matter. Internet use in the country was virtually nonexistent with just 0.01% of the population online, according to the World Bank.
In recent years, that number has vastly increased. The Taliban have also increased their online presence, producing slick videos and maintaining official social media accounts. Despite bans, they have found ways to evade restrictions on YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. Last year, for instance, they used WhatsApp groups to share pictures of local health officials in white gowns and masks handing out protective masks and bars of soap to locals.
On Twitter, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has been posting regular updates to more than 300,000 followers, including international media. Twitter suspended another account, @AfghPresident, which has served as the nation’s de facto official presidential account, pending verification of the account holder’s identity.
“There’s a realization that winning the war is as much a function of a nonmilitary tool like social media as it is about the bullets,” said Sarah Kreps, a law professor at Cornell University who focuses on international politics, technology and national security. “Maybe these groups, even from just an instrumental perspective, have realized that beheading people is not a way to win the hearts and minds of the country.”
Also read: Taliban promise women's rights, security under Islamic rule
WAIT, THE TALIBAN WERE ALLOWED ON TWITTER?
Facebook and YouTube consider the Taliban a terrorist organization and prohibit it from operating accounts. Twitter has not explicitly banned the group, though the company said Tuesday that it will continue to enforce its rules, in particular policies than bar “glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.”
This essentially means that until the accounts violate Twitter’s rules — for instance, by inciting violence — they are allowed to operate.
While the Taliban is not on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on it. Facebook said Tuesday that the group is banned from its platform under its “dangerous organization” policies. which also bars “praise, support and representation” of the group and accounts run on its behalf. The company emphasized in a statement that it has a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts that are native speakers of Dari and Pashto, Afghanistan’s official languages, to help provide local context and to alert the company of emerging issues.
Facebook has a spotty record when it comes to enforcing its rules. Doing so on WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook, could prove more difficult given that the service encrypts messages so that no one but senders and recipients can read them.
Twitter said it is seeing people in Afghanistan using its platform to seek help and that its top priority is “keeping people safe.” Critics immediately questioned why the company continues to ban former President Donald Trump even as it allows Mujahid to post.
“They certainly decided to silence a former U.S. president,” said Alex Triantafilou, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party in Cincinnati, Ohio, who called Twitter’s decision “preposterous.”
Twitter permanently suspended Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, saying his posts glorified and could lead to more violence. The company has long insisted that it suspends accounts based on behavior and whether they violate its rules on the service, and not on offline actions and affiliation.
While he understands that social media companies operate in a global economy, Triantafilou said, “it seems to me that supporting America and our own interest” would make more sense for a U.S. company.
Also read: What Taliban's return means for Bangladesh
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
As the situation unfolds, the major companies are grappling with how to respond. It’s not an entirely unique situation — they have had to deal with groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, for instance, which hold considerable political power but are also violent and have carried out acts of terrorism.
“For the past decade, Hamas has used social media to gain attention, and convey their messages to international audiences in multiple languages,” wrote Devorah Margolin, senior research fellow at the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University, in a July report. For example, she wrote, both the political and military wings of Hamas operated official accounts on Twitter.
Despite attempts to use its English-language account to make its case to the international community, Margolin said the group still used Twitter to call for violence. In 2019, Twitter closed the official accounts, @HamasInfo and @HamasInfoEn, for violating its rules, saying there is “no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups.”
Facebook declined to say specifically if it would hand over Afghanistan’s official government accounts to the Taliban if it is recognized as the country’s government. The company pointed to an earlier statement saying it “does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations.”
Twitter declined to answer questions beyond its statement. YouTube, meanwhile, provided a boilerplate statement saying it complies with “all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws” and bans the incitement of violence.
All that effectively leaves the door open for the social platforms to eventually hand over control of the official accounts, assuming the Taliban behave and U.S. sanctions are lifted. “That seems like a reasonable approach, because I think the social media platforms don’t necessarily want to be adjudicating is which groups are legitimate themselves,” said Kreps, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1999 to 2003, partly in Afghanistan.
At the same time, she noted, the companies, especially Facebook, have learned a great deal — and paid a price — for the way the way social media helped incite genocidal behavior in Myanmar. And they’re unlikely to want a repeat of those horrors.
Iranians fear new bill will restrict internet even further
For Ali Hedieloo, a 40-year-old making wooden furniture in Iran’s capital, Instagram is more than just a surfeit of glossy images. Like an estimated 1 million other Iranians, it’s how he finds customers, as the app has exploded into a massive e-commerce service in the sanctions-hit country.
But now, the social media platform has come under threat. Iran moved last week toward further government restrictions on Instagram and other apps, as hard-line lawmakers agreed to discuss a bill that many fear will undermine communication, wipe out livelihoods and open the door to the banning of key social media tools.
“I and the people working here are likely to lose our jobs if this bill becomes effective,” said Hedieloo from his dimly lit workshop in the southern suburbs of Tehran, where he sands bleached wood and snaps photos of adorned desks to advertise.
Read: Desperate for vaccines amid surge, Iranians flock to Armenia
The bill has yet to be approved by Iran’s hard-liner dominated parliament, but it is already stirring anxiety among young Iranians, avid social media users, online business owners and entrepreneurs. Iran is a country with some 94 million internet devices in use among its over 80 million people. Nearly 70% of Iran’s population uses smartphones.
Over 900,000 Iranians have signed a petition opposing the bill. The protest comes at a tense time for Iran, with Ebrahim Raisi, the former judiciary chief and hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assuming the country’s highest civilian position this week. Journalists, civil society advocates and government critics have raised the alarm about the possible increase of social repression once he takes office.
The draft legislation, first proposed this spring by conservative lawmakers, requires major foreign tech giants such as Facebook to register with the Iranian government and be subject to its oversight and data ownership rules.
Companies that host unregistered social media apps in Iran would risk penalties, with authorities empowered to slow down access to the companies’ services as a way to force them to comply. Lawmakers have noted that the crippling U.S. sanctions on Iran make the registration of American tech companies in the country impossible, effectively ensuring their ban.
The law would also criminalize the sale and distribution of virtual private networks and proxies — a critical way Iranians access long-blocked social media platforms like Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube. It also would bar government officials from running accounts on banned social media platforms, which they now use to communicate with citizens and the press. Even the office of the supreme leader has a Twitter account with over 890,000 followers.
And finally, the bill takes control of the internet away from the civilian government and places it under the armed forces.
The bill’s goal, according to its authors, is to “protect users and their rights.” Hard-liners in the government have long viewed social messaging and media services as part of a “soft war” by the West against the Islamic Republic. Over time, Iran has created what some have called the “halal” internet — the Islamic Republic’s own locally controlled version of the internet aimed at restricting what the public can see.
Supporters of the bill, such as hard-line lawmaker Ali Yazdikhah, have hailed it as a step toward an independent Iranian internet, where “people will start to prefer locally developed services” over foreign companies.
Read: Drone attacks by Iraqi militias reflect Iran’s waning hold
“There is no reason to worry, online businesses will stay, and even we promise that they will expand too,” he said.
Internet advocates, however, fear the measures will tip the country toward an even more tightly controlled model like China, whose “Great Firewall” blocks access to thousands of foreign websites and slows others.
Iran’s outgoing Information Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, whom the hard-line judiciary summoned for prosecution earlier this year over his refusal to block Instagram, warned that the bill would curtail access to information and lead to full-blown bans of popular messaging apps. In a letter to Raisi last month, he urged the president-elect to reconsider the bill.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Social media is a highly contested space in Iran, where the government retains tight control over newspapers and remains the only entity allowed to broadcast on television and radio. Over recent years, anti-government protesters have used social media as a communication tool to mobilize and spread their message, prompting authorities to cripple internet services.
During the turmoil in the fall of 2019, for instance, the government imposed a near-complete internet blackout. Even scattered demonstrations, such as the recent protests over water shortages in Iran’s southwest, have seen disruptions of mobile internet service.
But many ordinary Iranians, reeling from harsh American sanctions that have severed access to international banking systems and triggered runaway inflation, remain more preoccupied with the bill’s potential financial fallout.
As the coronavirus ravages Iran, a growing number of people like Hedieloo have turned to Instagram to make a living — tutoring and selling homemade goods and art. Over 190,000 businesses moved online over the past year.
Read:US takes down Iran-linked news sites, alleges disinformation
Although much about the bill’s fate remains uncertain, experts say it already has sent a chill through commerce on Instagram, where once-hopeful users now doubt they have a future on the app.
“I and everyone else who is working in cyberspace is worried,” said Milad Nouri, a software developer and technology analyst. “This includes a teenager playing online games, a YouTuber making money from their channel, an influencer, an online shop based on Instagram.”
He added: “Everyone is somehow stressed.”
Rights group: Facebook amplified Myanmar military propaganda
Facebook’s recommendation algorithm amplifies military propaganda and other material that breaches the company’s own policies in Myanmar following a military takeover in February, a new report by the rights group Global Witness says.
A month after the military seized power in Myanmar and imprisoned elected leaders, Facebook’s algorithms were still prompting users to view and “like” pro-military pages with posts that incited and threatened violence, pushed misinformation that could lead to physical harm, praised the military and glorified its abuses, Global Witness said in the report, published late Tuesday.
That’s even though the social media giant vowed to remove such content following the coup, announcing it would remove Myanmar military and military-controlled pages from its site and from Instagram, which it also owns. It has since enacted other measures intended to reduce offline harm in the country.
Facebook said Tuesday its teams “continue to closely monitor the situation in Myanmar in real-time and take action on any posts, Pages or Groups that break our rules.”
Read:UK announces sanctions on companies linked to Myanmar’s military regime
Days after the Feb. 1 coup, the military temporarily blocked access to Facebook because it was being used to share anti-coup comments and organize protests. Access was later restored. In the following weeks, Facebook continued to tighten its policies against the military, banning all military entities from its platforms and saying it would remove praise or support for violence against citizens and their arrest.
“Once again, Facebook shows that it’s good at making broad sweeping announcements and bad at actually enforcing them. They’ve had years to improve their work in Myanmar but once again they are still failing,” said Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook data scientist and whistleblower who found evidence of political manipulation in countries such as Honduras and Azerbaijan while she worked there.
The struggle between the military regime that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and those opposing it has sharpened in recent months.
Soldiers and police have killed hundreds of protesters. Last week, the United Nations’ office in Myanmar expressed concern about escalating human rights abuses after reports that a group opposed to the junta may have executed 25 civilians it captured and allegations that troops had burned down a village.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, had over 22.3 million Facebook users in January 2020, more than 40% of its population, according to social media management platform NapoleonCat.
Read:Resident: Junta burns Myanmar village in escalating violence
“What happens on Facebook matters everywhere, but in Myanmar that is doubly true,” the report says. As in many countries outside the Western Hemisphere, mobile phones in Myanmar often come pre-loaded with Facebook and many businesses do not have a website, only a Facebook page. For many people in the country, Facebook effectively is the internet.
On March 23, just before the peak of military violence against civilians, Global Witness said it set up a new, clean Facebook account with no history of liking or following specific topics and searched for “Tatmadaw”, the Burmese name for the armed forces. It filtered the search results to show pages, and selected the top result — a military fan page whose name translates as “a gathering of military lovers.”
Older posts on this page showed sympathy for Myanmar’s soldiers and at least two advertised for young people to join the military — but none of the newer posts since the coup violated Facebook’s policies. However, when Global Witness’s account “liked” the page, Facebook began recommending related pages with material inciting violence, false claims of interference in last year’s election and support of violence against civilians.
A March 1 post, for instance, includes a death threat against protesters who vandalize surveillance cameras.
Read:Ousted Myanmar leader on trial; critics say charges bogus
“Those who threaten female police officers from the traffic control office and violently destroy the glass and destroy CCTV, those who cut the cables, those who vandalize with color sprays, (we) have been given an order to shoot to kill them on the spot,” reads part of the post in translation, according to the report. “Saying this before Tatmadaw starts doing this. If you don’t believe and continue to do this, go ahead. If you are not afraid to die, keep going.”
Facebook said its ban of the Tatmadaw and other measures have “made it harder for people to misuse our services to spread harm. This is a highly adversarial issue and we continue to take action on content that violates our policies to help keep people safe.”
Global Witness said its findings show that Facebook fails to uphold the “very basics” of its own guidelines.
“The platform operates too much like a walled garden, its algorithms are designed, trained, and tweaked without adequate oversight or regulation,” said Naomi Hirst, head of the digital threats campaign at Global Witness. “This secrecy has to end, Facebook must be made accountable.”
Resident: Junta burns Myanmar village in escalating violence
Government troops have burned most of a village in Myanmar’s heartland, a resident said Wednesday, confirming reports by independent media and on social networks. The action appeared to be an attempt to suppress resistance against the ruling military junta.
Government-controlled media reported the fires were set by “terrorists” the armed troops were trying to arrest. The government and its opponents each refer to the other side as “terrorists.”
The near-destruction of the village is the latest example of how violence has become endemic in much of Myanmar as the junta tries to subdue an incipient nationwide insurrection. After the army seized power in February, overthrowing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, a nonviolent civil disobedience movement arose to challenge military rule, but the junta’s attempt to repress it with deadly force fueled rather than quelled resistance.
Read: Ousted Myanmar leader on trial; critics say charges bogus
Photos and videos of devastated Kinma village in Magway region that circulated widely on social media showed much of the village flattened by fire and the charred bodies of farm animals. One report said the village had about 1,000 residents.
A villager contacted by phone said only 10 of 237 houses were left standing. The villager, who asked that his name not be used because of fear of government reprisals, said most residents had already fled when soldiers firing guns entered the village shortly before noon on Tuesday.
He said he believed the troops were searching for members of a village defense force that had been established to protect against the junta’s troops and police. Most such local forces are very lightly armed with homemade hunting rifles.
Read: Suu Kyi appears in Myanmar court for 2nd time
The village defense force warned residents before the troops arrived, so only four or five people were left in the village when they began searching houses in the afternoon. When they found nothing, they began setting the homes on fire, he said.
“There are some forests just nearby our village. Most of us fled into the forests,” he said.
The villager said he believed there were three casualties, a boy who was a goat herder who was shot in the thigh, and an elderly couple who were unable to flee. He believed the couple had died but several media reports said they were missing.
Facebook to end rule exemptions for politicians
Facebook plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site, according to several news reports.
Read: Facebook won’t remove posts claiming COVID-19 is human-made
The company’s rationale for that policy held that the speech of political leaders is inherently newsworthy and in the public interest even if it is offensive, bullying or otherwise controversial. The social media giant is currently mulling over what to do with the account of former President Donald Trump, which it “indefinitely” suspended Jan. 6, leaving it in Facebook limbo with its owners unable to post.
The change in policy was first reported by the tech site The Verge and later confirmed by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Read: Online speech shield under fire as Trump Facebook ban stays
Facebook has had a general “newsworthiness exemption” since 2016. But it garnered attention in 2019 when Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs and communications, announced that speech from politicians will be treated as “newsworthy content that should, as a general rule, be seen and heard.”
The newsworthiness exemption, he explained in a blog post at the time, meant that if “someone makes a statement or shares a post which breaks our community standards we will still allow it on our platform if we believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm.”
Read: Facebook board’s Trump decision could have wider impacts
This hasn’t given politicians unlimited license, however. When Facebook suspended Trump in January, it cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as the reason. The company says it has never used the newsworthiness exemption for any of Trump’s posts.
Facebook declined to comment.
The Cultural Hegemony of Social Media
The theory of "cultural hegemony," developed by the late Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci in the 1930s, might have been misconstrued at the time, but its basic insight into the influence of culture on behavior, values and policy remain as topical as ever. It may even be argued that the ubiquity of technology has allowed cultural hegemony to wield a far greater stranglehold on cultural diversity than ever before.
Gramsci's insight unmasked how the ruling class controlled society not only through its institutions, but also - and more importantly - by the domination of culture. Cultural norms are portrayed as self-evident and eternal truths, thereby exposing dissent to ridicule or social excommunication.
Today we would say that the rulers define and control the narrative.
Recently the Western-centric cultural paradigm evangelized by tech was buttressed by the decisions of Facebook's Oversight Board. These decisions are largely based on the assumption that all moral, ethical or any other judgements (1) are or should be the same all over the world and (2) that they should reflect American or "Western" values and norms.
This paradigm of universality is, however, pegged on the infinite nature of tech rather than on reflection or philosophical analysis of the appropriateness of the belief.
The paradigm seeks moral recognition and support from human rights. Many believe that the promotion of uniform cultural values is somehow a "human rights obligation," given that foundational human rights like free speech are universal by nature. By conflating tech universality with human rights universality, the realm of cultural values is subsumed into the maelstrom of Western norms.
Take as an example nude photos. Whether or not they are deemed appropriate is strictly a cultural phenomenon. The point is not the specific decision of the Facebook Oversight Board, which dealt with nude photos in the context of breast exams, but the fact that this private corporation (and now its Oversight Board) has elevated itself to exercise universal judgement on a culturally specific subject.
Another example of the Westernization of cultural paradigms is the failure to "regulate" cartoons and the degrading treatment of religious figures. These have somehow become vital to free speech, and the failure to recognize the existential dimension to other cultures of the sacred nature of their beliefs is conveniently justified by the pursuit of "agnosticism" - a new universal cultural value.
In the name of free speech social media have anointed themselves guardians of human rights worldwide, but in their quest for consumer influence they have usurped a right to impose Western morals and values on other cultures. It's almost a modern version of Manifest Destiny and the primacy of individual rights (a capitalist ethos) over collective rights - a remake of the paradox reflected in the Declaration of Human Rights from 1948, which resulted in the UN adopting two separate human rights treaties in the 1960s: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
No nation has the right to raise its own values and norms above those of other civilizations, and that principle necessarily extends to corporate shadows.
Unfortunately history abounds with the horrific consequences of such an approach. This is one of the reasons why the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was developed under the auspices of UNESCO in 2005.
It's imperative that the universality of Western norms be seriously re-examined and that social media adopt a respectful attitude to cultural diversity by applying regional norms to the territories they operate in or target.
This is precisely the objective of an “Internet Ombudsman” – a state-based institution providing non-binding guidance to social media on local cultural values. The Council of Europe adopted the recommendation to create such ombudsmen in September 2020.
In addition to protecting cultural differences, it provides legal certainty to social media when confronted with the difficult judgment calls pitting free speech against hurtful content.
Cultural hegemony canonized by human rights could be contained by such a regional or "civilizational" approach. The consequences of the unbridled export of Western norms are destructive to traditions, intergenerational harmony, social fabric and cohesion as well as national identity, local languages, artistic expression and creeds.
Dan Shefet is a Paris-based lawyer specializing in European and human rights law, and information technology law in particular. This article was first published in the Greek newspaper "Real News," in collaboration with the Greek Representation to the European Commission and the Democracy & Culture Foundation.
Tahsan-Mithila’s joint pledge against cyberbullying creates buzz on social media
Harmonizing unity against cyberbullying, former celebrity couple Tahsan Rahman Khan and Rafiath Rashid Mithila appeared on a Facebook live show together on Saturday after four years of their divorce, marking the festive occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.Organized by leading e-commerce site Evaly on its Facebook page, the former couple expressed their feelings on the burning issue while urging their fans and followers to stop the cruelty and badmouthing on the internet, and also called for spreading healthy and positive mentality.Hosted by Naveed Mahbub, celebrated comedian and CEO at Naveed's Comedy Club and titled ‘Evaly Eid Live – Saturday Night Surprise, Tahsan vs Mithila’, the two-parts live programme has already become one of the most highlighted programmes on this Eid-ul-Fitr. Within 24 hours of the live show went on-air, the first half garnered over 922K Views, 57K comments and 32K reactions while the second half garnered over 1.1M Views, 46K comments and 33K reactions.Actress Mithila, who was introduced as the brand ambassador of Evaly lifestyle, said, “We are not just here as the brand ambassadors of Evaly, but to spread positivity on the internet. We all are facing crucial times, so we should not say bad things and listen to bad things, Let's spread positivity. This is our main goal in connecting with Evaly and coming live together on this occasion today.”Tahsan, who has been appointed as the Chief Goodness Officer of Evaly, harmonized his parts of speeches with Mithila's words, saying, "I am lucky that my fans have always behaved well on my posts, however, there are some people who constantly love to spread negativity and unnecessary hatred. Furthermore, Mithila has been constantly targetted and bullied in her social media accounts since we had been mutually separated, and sometimes I also get tagged on those hateful posts, which is disheartening.”“I think there is an opportunity today through this live as people did not expect us to be together, and we came to this live session together today because many people will watch this out of their curiosity. From here, the next generation can learn that even if you do not agree with someone, even if there are differences in your ideologies - you can always sit and talk with respect for each other,” Tahsan added.
Also read: Mithila, Srijit tie the knot
Mithila said, “We have been separated for the last four years but we are co-parenting our daughter. Here we are giving surprise gifts to our fans who are spreading positivity on the comment thread of this quiz show, and I think another surprise of this Eid special programme is that the two of us may be separated, but we can respectfully sit next to each other and talk, without insulting each other.”Pointing towards the recent negativities on social media, Tahsan said, “These type of behaviours are on the rise because we don't really talk about these things. We saw last week that Chanchal Chowdhury, one of the most talented artists in Bangladesh, got bullied for absolutely no reason at all on his Facebook post where he posted a picture of his mother. It's not just me, Mithila or Chanchal Chowdhury who get to be bullied - but it has turned into a mental disorder in general.”“If we, especially the public figures, do not speak or raise voice against this harsh notion - the next generation will not understand that there is no heroism in speaking harshly to someone. It belittles not only one’s own but the person’s family and education. We need to be compassionate towards each other on the internet, and we thank Evaly for bringing us to raise awareness and surprising our fans with gifts for spreading positivity at the same time,” both Tahsan and Mithila said at the programme.
Facebook board’s Trump decision could have wider impacts
Since the day after the deadly Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump’s social media accounts have been silent — muzzled for inciting violence using the platforms as online megaphones.
On Wednesday, his fate on Facebook, the biggest social platform around, will be decided. The company’s quasi-independent Oversight Board will announce its ruling around 9 a.m. ET. If it rules in Trump’s favor, Facebook has seven days to reinstate the account. If the board upholds Facebook’s decision, Trump will remain “indefinitely” suspended.
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Politicians, free speech experts and activists around the world are watching the decision closely. It has implications not only for Trump but for tech companies, world leaders and people across the political spectrum — many of whom have wildly conflicting views of the proper role for technology companies when it comes to regulating online speech and protecting people from abuse and misinformation.
After years of handling Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric with a light touch, Facebook and Instagram took the drastic step of silencing his accounts in January. In announcing the unprecedented move, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the risk of allowing Trump to continue using the platform was too great.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page on Jan. 7.
A day before the announcement, Trump unveiled a new blog on his personal website, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.” While the page includes a dramatic video claiming, “A BEACON OF FREEDOM ARISES” and hailing “A PLACE TO SPEAK FREELY AND SAFELY,” the page is little more than a displays of Trump’s recent statements — available elsewhere on the website — that can be easily shared on Facebook and Twitter, the platforms that banished him after the riot.
While Trump aides have spent months teasing his plans to launch his own social media platform, his spokesman Jason Miller said the blog was something separate.
“President Trump’s website is a great resource to find his latest statements and highlights from his first term in office, but this is not a new social media platform,” he tweeted. “We’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future.”
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Barred from social media, Trump has embraced other platforms for getting his message out. He does frequent interviews with friendly news outlets and has emailed a flurry of statements to reporters through his official office and political group.
Trump has even said he prefers the statements to his old tweets, often describing them as more “elegant.”
Facebook created the oversight panel to rule on thorny content on its platforms following widespread criticism of its difficulty responding swiftly and effectively to misinformation, hate speech and nefarious influence campaigns. Its decisions so far — all nine of them — have tended to favor free expression over the restriction of content.
In its first rulings, the panel overturned four out of five decisions by the social network to take down questionable material. It ordered Facebook to restore posts by users that the company said broke standards on adult nudity, hate speech, or dangerous individuals.
Critics of Facebook, however, worry that the Oversight Board is a mere distraction from the company’s deeper problems — ones that can’t be addressed in a handful of high-profile cases by a semi-independent body of experts.
“Facebook set the rules, are judge, jury and executioner and control their own appeals court and their own Supreme Court. The decisions they make have an impact on our democracies, national security and biosecurity and cannot be left to their own in house theatre of the absurd,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit critical of Facebook. “Whatever the judgement tomorrow, this whole fiasco shows why we need democratic regulation of Big Tech.”
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Gautam Hans, a technology law and free speech expert and professor at Vanderbilt University, said he finds the Oversight Board structure to be “frustrating and a bit of a sideshow from the larger policy and social questions that we have about these companies.”
“To some degree, Facebook is trying to create an accountability mechanism that I think undermines efforts to have government regulation and legislation,” Hans said. “If any other company decided, well, we’re just going to outsource our decision-making to some quasi-independent body, that would be thought of as ridiculous.”
India's top court warns against any clampdown on social media Covid appeals
India's top court on Friday warned state governments across the country against any clampdown on citizens taking to social media for help or airing their grievances amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court said that it would initiate contempt action against state governments and law enforcement authorities if they file a police case or arrest people appealing for help or putting out their SOS messages on social media or elsewhere during the pandemic.
"It is of grave concern to me as a citizen or (a) judge. If citizens communicate their grievances on social media, we do not want a clampdown on information. Let us hear their voices. We will treat this as contempt if any citizen is harassed if they want bed or oxygen. We are in (a) human crisis," said Justice DY Chandrachud, who led the bench.
"Even doctors and healthcare workers are not getting beds," he said, describing the situation in the country "grim".
The court's warning came in the wake of a deluge of SOS messages on social media amid an escalating oxygen crisis in India, particularly in the national capital. Hospitals after hospitals in Delhi and its suburbs are sending out SOS messages to health authorities daily, seeking adequate supply of the life-saving gas.
Last week, at least 50 Covid patients on life support died at two leading Delhi hospitals due to oxygen shortage. Jaipur Golden Hospital, a dedicated Covid medical facility in Delhi, said on Saturday morning that 25 Covid patients died around midnight on Friday due to "low-supply oxygen" to critical patients on ventilator.
On Friday morning too, another leading hospital in Delhi announced the deaths of 25 patients in 24 hours due to a shortage of oxygen.In a statement, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had said, "25 sickest patients have died in the last 24 hours. Oxygen will last another two hours. Major crisis likely. Lives of another 60 sickest patients at risk, need urgent intervention."
It may also be mentioned here that 24 Covid patients on ventilator at a government hospital in the western Indian state of Maharashtra died on Wednesday after their oxygen supply ran out following leakage of the life-supporting gas from a tanker.
The tanker was brought to Zakir Hussain Municipal Hospital in the state's Nashik district to replenish the oxygen cylinders at the medical facility for continuous supply to the 150-plus Covid-19 patients on life support.