Amanda Todd, Michael Brutsch, and Free Speech Online : The New Yorker

Amanda Todd, Michael Brutsch, and Free Speech Online : The New Yorker:

"What you could call the Brutschean world view—which takes anonymity as the only meaningful form of privacy, and a key element of free speech—is nearly an article of faith in these lower levels of the Internet. But it has tentacles that extend to higher, more powerful places. Scholars often approvingly quote EFF.org founder John Perry Barlow’s “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” which, among other utopian visions, holds that “our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion.” The founding myth of the Internet was its offer of a way to escape physical reality; the freedom to shape yourself, to say anything, became a sort of sacred object.
But, as the scholar Mary Anne Franks has observed, women haven’t actually achieved this “bodiless” freedom online. They are embodied in distributed pictures and in sexual comments, whether they like it or not. The power to get away from yourself, like everything else, is unevenly distributed. Women have become, as Franks put it, “unwilling avatars,” unable to control their own images online, and then told to put up with it for the sake of “freedom,” for the good of the community. And then they are incorrectly told, even if the public is behind them, that they have no remedies in the law. They are shouted down by people with a view of freedom of speech more literal than that held by any judge."

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Reddit user Violentacrez fired from job after Gawker exposé | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Reddit user Violentacrez fired from job after Gawker exposé | Technology | guardian.co.uk:

"The Reddit user whose identity was revealed in an extensive Gawker exposé has revealed that he was fired from his job at the weekend.
Michael Brutsch, a 49-year-old programmer from Texas, said on Reddit that he had been told not to return to work after Gawker revealed that he was Violentacrez, a prolific user linked to posts filled with racism, misogyny and incest."
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After today's class, I found this update to the Reddit case we discussed in class.

It's Not About You: The Truth About Social Media Marketing | LinkedIn

It's Not About You: The Truth About Social Media Marketing | LinkedIn:

"I recently attended an event with a large number of advertising executives.  All of them are coming to grips with the change from the era of push media to the era of social media, which might more properly be called "pull media."  At its core, the social revolution allows people to consume what they want, when they want, and largely on the recommendation of friends and other non-professional influencers.  Attempt to graft old models onto it and you are doomed to struggle; find models that are native to the medium and you will thrive."
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Good article with a lot to think about.

Amanda Todd's alleged tormentor named by hacker group - British Columbia - CBC News

Amanda Todd's alleged tormentor named by hacker group - British Columbia - CBC News:

"Anonymous published the name and address of a Vancouver-area man that the group claims was bullying and preying on Todd via the internet.
The activist group, which often uses a caricature Guy Fawkes mask as its logo, claims the 32-year-old man has also made postings to child pornography sites.
The man himself has now been threatened online by others vowing to carry out vigilante justice, a development that worries Vancouver defence lawyer Eric Gottardi."
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Hactivism meets vigilantism meets anonymity meets privacy meets moral and legal issues.

In Technology Wars, Using the Patent as a Sword - NYTimes.com

In Technology Wars, Using the Patent as a Sword - NYTimes.com: "However, many people argue that the nation’s patent rules, intended for a mechanical world, are inadequate in today’s digital marketplace. Unlike patents for new drug formulas, patents on software often effectively grant ownership of concepts, rather than tangible creations. Today, the patent office routinely approves patents that describe vague algorithms or business methods, like a software system for calculating online prices, without patent examiners demanding specifics about how those calculations occur or how the software operates."
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Rise of drones in UK airspace prompts civil liberties warning | World news | The Observer

Rise of drones in UK airspace prompts civil liberties warning | World news | The Observer: "Drones will be commonplace in the skies above the UK within a decade, according to a European commission document suggesting that hundreds of firms will develop new uses for them.
But the claims have prompted concerns from civil liberties groups, who fear that the unmanned aircraft will result in more forms of surveillance. Some 95% of drones in operation are used by the military, but the document notes they now also have "great potential for civil applications"."
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Social networks own us all – it’s time we returned the favour - The Globe and Mail

Social networks own us all – it’s time we returned the favour - The Globe and Mail:

"Because on the Web we perform our most clickable selves, academics and the writers who read them have segued from discussing “Internet fame” to saying the Internet makes us all famous. Progressive observers, like Alice Marwick or Rob Horning, are concerned with the commodification of self via social media and “microfame.” Whether micro or macro, the trade-off for fame is privacy, and – particularly in the case of Facebook – we’re sacrificing wider and wider swaths of it for (usually, relatively) narrow public recognition."

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Interesting reflections on a number of subjects from social networks to art and music to reality tv.

Why the Internet Is About to Replace TV as the Most Important Source of News - Derek Thompson - The Atlantic

Why the Internet Is About to Replace TV as the Most Important Source of News - Derek Thompson - The Atlantic: "But the larger story is the rise of the Web, which has surpassed newspapers and radio to become the second most popular source of news for Americans, after TV. This is the graph from the report, in my opinion:"

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According to the line chart in this article, people are now getting more of their news from the internet than from newspapers or radio, and it seems only a matter of a short time before it surpasses television. In addition, the number of people who get news from all sources except the internet has been steadily dropping since the early 90s.