Social media in government: 22 to 30 November

Happy Thanksgiving for those of us from the USA. My holiday celebration means this column is a day late.

Starting with Canada: peaceful protests on the 22nd of November denounced government budget cuts in light of increased defence spending in Montreal. Demilitarize McGill, a group dedicated to highlighting and protesting federal government-funded research into drones, data mining and social media analysis at McGill university, participated in the protests and posted about the event on social media.

Canada also finished up Bullying Awareness Week the 22nd. The week is meant to raise awareness about the potential emotional and physical pain associated with all types of bullying, including cyberbullying. Canadian advocates from groups like Stop Hating Online,  #Cyberlove and Fearlessly Girl praised how social networks provide powerful tools for youth in the fight against bullying.

In the USA, Thanksgiving is followed by #BlackFriday, a day of sales and shopping that is almost as celebrated as Thanksgiving day itself. This year, #WalmartStrikers took to the streets and to social media to demand better wages and more full-time work. Walmart earns about 16 billion US dollars in annual profits and is the USA's largest employer of 1.4 million workers. The store pays poverty wages and uses part-time work schedules to avoid offering benefits to employees.

The USA National Security Agency Civil Liberties and Privacy Director Rebecca Richards held a tumblr chat with concerned netizens early last week. Users could question the Director about NSA policies via the IC on the Record tumblr blog or on Twitter via @icontherecord.

A controversial case involving social media, free speech, and threatening language hit the USA Supreme Court this past week. Anthony Elonis posted threatening messages about killing his wife and images in which he pretended to kill a female co-worker to Facebook and will argue that his social media posts were therapy rather than threats, protected under the Constitution as free speech, and that they should not be held against him by the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In Jamaica, Environment Minister Robert Pickersgill is in hot water with Jamaicans online after the Minister's comments that most Jamaicans know nothing about Twitter. The Minister claimed that government criticism on social media came from an "articulate minority" and did not necessarily represent the opinions of "ordinary" Jamaicans.  Jamaican netizens disagree.

The UK parliament targeted social networks this past week. The parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) published its inquiry into the May 2013 murder of a British soldier on a London street by two British Muslims. The inquiry suggests that social networking companies have a duty to not only monitor discussions between members of their online communities but also to inform governments of any suspicious communications. The parliament's science and technology committee published a separate report stating that social media terms and conditions are too complex for users. At the same time, Theresa May MP (Member of Parliament) outlined plans for a new law that will compel firms to hand over digital information that will help identify who was using a particular computer or mobile device at a given time.  

For more light reading, The Guardian hosted social media week for government, encouraging local government leaders to write about their use of social media. 

Uganda held the country's first social media summit the 26th of November. Catch up on #SMUg14 here.

The United Arab Emirates hosted a media Forum the same day. Habib Al Mulla, lawyer and writer, spoke at the Forum on UAE laws that impact social media, "One is spreading misleading information deliberately. The second is spreading rumours that threaten national security. The latest concerns posting pictures or information and pictures of a person's private life. This will draw a fine and jail term."

The UAE Governance and Innovation Programme at the Mohammad Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) in cooperation with Dubai Press Club presented the survey "2014 UAE social media outlook: increasing connectivity between government and citizen."  The survey noted that most citizens do not feel comfortable sharing private information with the government via social media. However, most survey participants did agree that more social media interaction with the government could benefit the design and delivery of public services.

Russia's Ekho Moskvy, one of the last independent radio stations still permitted to, on occasion, criticise the Russian government, is drafting new social media guidelines after an "insensitive Tweet" by one of its journalists. The questionable Tweet suggested that the drowning of the son of the Kremlin's chief of staff might be a sign of justice given the drowning victim had earlier killed a pensioner in a hit-and-run car accident. 

A new Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in India must be elected by the 23rd of December, and the political campaigns are heating up on social media. A former Bharatiya Janata Party idealogue filed a petition challenging the current Indian Government's use of social media to disseminate information to the public on the grounds that social network companies may misuse the information. The Indian Congress is criticising the Government's changes in policy post-elections using the hashtag #UTurn Sarkar. 

United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysia's largest political party, hosted its International Forum 2014 titled Hyperconnectivity and the Social Media: Empowering Citizens to Build or Divide a Nation. Umno president and Malay Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said that the biggest challenges for his party included the rise of social media, generation Y and support of the Chinese community after the 12th General Election. Malay Prime Minister Najib has a following of more than 2.2 million on Twitter. 

In Australia, the Immigration Minister is under fire for spending almost $120,000 on monitoring the media, including social media, for mentions of specific names and topics. His is not the first office to be criticised for this offence; however, he is notable given his overall lack of media engagement despite his office's obvious interest in what is being said in the media. 

Finally, December 5th marks the one-year anniversary of Nelson Mandela's death. South Africa plans to distinguish the occasion online and offline. Follow the hashtag #RememberMandela to participate.

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.

Social media and government this week - 15 to 21 November

Summary

The theme for Europe this week is privacy. Italy hopes to better mediate data-sharing. Romania's President is the most popular politician on Facebook. The UK has warned police officers to keep mum. 
Across the pond, a Canadian public service announcement is generating amused buzz while the Government is worried about online ISIS recruitment. In the USA, several social media events occurred while a few studies looked at social media use and the police, social media use and banks, and social media use and counter-terrorism.  
Chinese teachers are warned about their social media content, and a Philippine Minister used Twitter to set the record straight while others in his country explored social media use in disasters. Indians are campaigning against rape while authorities in Jammu and Kashmir order a social media gag order. 
Egyptians are sad about a young girl's suicide, a Nigerian Governor credits social media in his success, Uganda issues social media guidelines to its public servants, and Jordan's Queen calls on Muslims to change the social media narrative of Islam. 

Finally, don't forget to check out a suggested tool used to detect spyware.

Europe 

Italy, currently holding the European Union's rotating presidency, has proposed an EU-wide data protection board to mediate disagreements between Member States over data-sharing. The current EU approach to data disagreements and privacy is the purely advisory board, the Article 29 Working Party. At the same time, the Austrian Max Schrems in Max Schrems Vs. Facebook is taking aim at the Safe Harbour agreement between the EU and the USA. Schrems says Safe Harbour offers no protection - would an EU privacy authority offer more?

 In other European news, Klaus Iohannis, the recently elected 5th President of Romania, has also become the most popular European politician on Facebook.

In the UK, police officers have been asked to avoid their uniforms and keep quiet on social media when it comes to work. Authorities fear terrorists might be targeting British police and using their online profiles to help plan an attack.

North America 

In Canada, a Tory ad attempting to discourage citizens from smoking pot through scary music and questionable claims has been roundly mocked in social media and given over 2500 "thumbs down" on YouTube (with only about 100 "thumbs up").  At least some of the credit goes to Reddit users where a long thread drew a lot of online attention to the video.

In more serious Canadian news, the government has noted that there have been a few cases of ISIS recruiting North American women as wives via social media. The government has ordered a study looking at: "why and how women are recruited; the proportion of women in terrorist groups and support networks; women’s motives for joining; the radicalization process for women; and the security challenges posed by the recruitment of women."

Finally, in Dartmouth on Canada's East Coast, emergency officials and volunteers took part in a disaster-management test Wednesday in which they were trained in using social media to better manage real world crises.

Canadians take experiment by storm, US assisting! http://t.co/8iDdByfD2X @katekaminska1 @TabTalks @pcdawe @DRDC_RDDC pic.twitter.com/sqcIJJ52o5
— FieldInnovationTeam (@FITreadytogo) November 19, 2014

In the United States, a study noted that American law enforcement agencies use social media for several purposes: for crime investigations, crime anticipations, and, less frequently, to engage with or inform the public of emergencies, disasters, or crimes. Most law enforcement agencies in the study claimed that they expect their social media use to go up in the future.

Meanwhile the Counter Extremism Project (not all that popular on Twitter) uses the hashtag #CEPDigitalDisruption to flag terrorist Twitter accounts for Twitter to take down. Not that this does much good. Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush and now head of the Counter Extremism Project, noted "It'll take Twitter 10 to 12 days to actually shut [the terrorist accounts] down. And it takes these [terrorist] guys, you know, as long as it takes to take a home pregnancy test before they reopen another account and they're up."

ATTN @Twitter: @greenbird70_72 says @BarackObama is the next westerner to be beheaded. #CEPDigitalDisruption pic.twitter.com/mVB4nuryA0
— CEP (@FightExtremism) November 17, 2014

Another US study focusing on banks noted that online users are not all that influenced by social media when it comes to their increasing (and already pretty significant) distrust of banks. Instead users rely more on their personal experiences with banks - although Millennials and Gen X'ers are paying more attention than Baby Boomers to what is said about banks on social media.

Four USA-based social media events happened over the last week.

Qlik hosted a hackathon with the United Nations in Orlando, Florida.

Rise Up, a network activist forum hosted in Washington DC, successfully brought social media dissent into the Real World when Code Pink protestors disrupted a live interview between journalist Jorge Ramos and US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.  Ramos invited the protestors to explain their position onstage and Power responded.

The New York Social Technologies in Emergency Management (SoTechEM) project presented "Social Media Practices in Local Emergency Management: Results from Central New York.” 

Social media strategist for the city of Boston Lindsay Crudele, GovGirl Kristy Dalton, Social media strategist for the city of Las Vegas Jennifer Davies, and Derek Chan of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, co-hosted a webinar on what being a government social media manager involves.

Asia

In China, an article widely shared on social media stated "Dear teachers, because your profession demands something higher of you, and because of the solemnity and particularity of the university classroom, please do not speak this way about China!" The article warned teachers to lay off rhetoric that was overly critical of the State.

The Philippines Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri, an avid Twitter user @hanifdhakiri, set the record straight after he was misquoted by an online news portal this week. Twitter followers of the minister blasted his account with criticism, and the Minister was quick to respond with an explanation.

Rappler, in partnership with the Australian Embassy in the Philippines and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) held an event this week to train local Philippine executives and disaster management personnel in the use of social media as a tool for disaster preparedness and response. The 2012 World Risk Report identified the Philippines, one of the world's most populous countries, as also one of the world's most disaster-prone.

@zakyuson shares how the #ProjectAgos tool works #agostest @MovePH #ZeroCasualty #commisaid pic.twitter.com/fqaHHGnxRQ
— Aaron Aspi (@aaron_aspi) November 17, 2014

One of the biggest trends on Twitter this week came out of India. The male Bollywood star, Farhan Akhtar, became UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador. Akhtar, @FarOutAkhtar on Twitter, launched the 2013 social initiative Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD) following the horrific gang rape of an Indian medical student on a bus that grabbed global headlines.

Well done #FarhanAkhtar! Totally deserved and a fabulous and intelligent decision by #UNWomen. What better than... http://t.co/3RxwQ1Hxnr
— Poonam Joshi (@PoonamJoshi_) November 14, 2014

The Jammu and Kashmir Police in Northern India issued a gag order demanding that employees refrain from criticising the government or the police on social media. In Maharashtra, the government plans to strengthen social media labs of the regional police to combat cybercrime, in particular social media posts that look to incite local violence between different social groups.

In Bengaluru, where there have been nine cases of sexual abuse against schoolchildren, over 200 students came together to issue a Children's Charter on how to avoid future sexual abuse. In addition to asking parents to behave better, the Charter asks that children be banned from using social media and mobiles.

The Indian state of Gujarat hired social media experts to boost the region's brand.

Africa

Egyptian social media is abuzz after twenty-something  Egyptian Zainab El Mahdy hung herself allegedly citing her depression over Egypt's resistance to change following the 2011 revolution.

Before suicide activist Zainab El Mahdy wrote: "There's no justice.. We're lying to ourselves just to live." #Egypt pic.twitter.com/qmfjQr2PuP
— Mina Fayek (@minafayek) November 13, 2014

At Nigeria's 2014 Ogun State Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Week, Osun State Governor Aregbesola claimed social media was key in his victory and noted that social media needed to be “[E]xplored and protected for the betterment of our electoral process and political life but it should also be constitutionally made part of our electoral process.”

The Uganda Directorate of Information and National Guidance developed a set of social media guidelines for public servants. Government workers are not to post personal opinions on official accounts and are to identify themselves when discussing any topic in an official capacity on social media. The guidelines will be reviewed at a national Social Media Summit next week. 

Queen Rania of Jordan implored participants at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit this week to express the voice of the moderate Arab in social media. "We must create a new narrative and broadcast it to the world. If we don’t decide what our identity is and what our legacy will be, the extremists will do it for us."

Tools

Finally, worried your phone has been bugged by the government (as opposed to the NSA just harvesting your data via court orders issued to Google and Facebook?) Get Detekt, Amnesty International's new tool. Detekt scans your device for signs of spyware. 

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.

Social media in government - 7-14 November 2014

We begin this week's round-up with Mexico.

Where many traditional media and journalists are either in fear or in collaboration of some sort with the local drug gangs, social media has become a source of accurate and up-to-date information for scared citizens. Unfortunately, that puts some social media users in danger, and this past week @Miut3, Dr. María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, a physician in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, was kidnapped and allegedly murdered for her social media reporting. She, along with others, posted largely accurate information on shootings, carjackings, and other local crimes to the hashtag #ReynosaFollow or on the Facebook page Valor por Tamaulipas. Her death has understandably unnerved her fellow social media reporters. 

At the same time, Mexican social media is currently attacking Mexican Attorney General Murillo Karam for muttering the phrase "I'm already tired." The Attorney General didn't realise the microphone was still on after he'd been questioned about 43 students kidnapped from a Teacher Training College by drug traffickers. Apparently, Karam is "already tired" of talking about the students, whom three recently detained drug traffickers have admitted to burning to death. Mexicans on social media are using the phrase to criticise their government's lack of progress in fighting corruption and violence in the country. 

In the USA, President Obama has made an online plea for the protection of net neutrality. Add your voice to the buzz about #netneutrality by clicking on the links. What is net neutrality? More here. 

In other US news, the Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project released its latest report. Findings indicate that Americans who are aware of government surveillance are worried about the government accessing their social media information (among other information that they post or store online) and are less likely to share private information via social media. Not a bad idea given the LexisNexis report, also released this week, that notes US law enforcement is increasingly using social media in investigations. 

Across the pond in Europe, Google has published a blog post suggesting that the US Privacy Act be extended to include Europeans.  This would allow Europeans to, among other things, potentially sue the US government for invasion of privacy. However, it would allow the US to be a bit more in charge of determining what actually constitutes privacy. Not sure if the Europeans will go for that...

In India, the national broadcasters have been criticised for lack of presence in social media despite the current government's enthusiastic embrace of engagement with the online public. In response to relevant Twitter debate, Jawhar Sircar, the Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, India's national public service broadcaster, tweeted “I do+ 5% seniors in PB, AIR & DD. Not seen any from ministry: only orders.”

India's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) "reconstituted" it's 12-member social media team following an embarrassing web banner posted to its web page by accident. 

India's neighbour Pakistan experienced a debate on social media after pictures from a model United Nations conference organised by the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) were posted online. The pictures include a booth for Israel - a country recognised by the UN but not by Pakistan. The Pakistani government warned students to respect "the perspective of the Government." 

In China, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is planning to shut down content providers that have a negative "severe impact." In response, 29 web portals and social networks including Tencent.com, Sohu.com, and 163.com, have signed a letter of intent to respect the Chinese government's plans to clean up the Internet. The web companies have agreed “to consciously abide by the ‘seven bottom lines’—law and rules, socialist systems, national interests, citizens’ legitimate rights, social public order, morality and authenticity of information.”

Australians on Twitter used the hashtag #takedownjulienblanc to successfully petition the Australian government to revoke the VISA of controversial pick-up "artist" Julien Blanc while Aussie Ombudsman Colin Neave released a report noting that Australians increasingly like to complain or address concerns with their government agencies using social media. 

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.