Social media in government: 9 February to 15 February 2015

Twitter released its biannual transparency report Monday. Quick stats:

• the number of requests for user information in the second half of 2014 went up 40%
• Twitter received 2,871 requests for 7,144 user accounts
• Twitter cooperated with 52% of requests
• more than half of government requests came from the United States
• the biggest increases in requests came from Russia and Turkey
• Twitter did not cooperate with Russia and Turkey on any of their requests.

Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Bitly, Dropbox, and Yahoo! have joined forces with ThreatExchange, a social network for cybersecurity experts to share information. ThreatExchange was developed from an internal Facebook network designed for “cataloguing threats in real time.” The page for the network notes, “[t]he beauty of working together on security. When one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us.”

Tuesday was Safer Internet Day (#SaferInternetDay #SID2015). Campaigns focused on how to improve the Internet for children and adults.

The United Nations Population Fund ran a social media campaign this Valentine’s Day (14 February) to encourage users to say #Idont to child brides.

Europe and US tech companies continue to debate the extent to which individuals have “the right to be forgotten.” The Google Advisory Council published a report that stated the following with regard to the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) decision that Europeans have the right to ask Google to remove links about them from search, “The Ruling is not precise about which versions of search a delisting must be applied to. Google has chosen to implement these removals from all its European-directed search services, citing the CJEU’s authority across Europe as its guidance. The Council understands that it is a general practice that users in Europe, when typing in www.google.com to their browser, are automatically redirected to a local version of Google’s search engine. Google has told us that over 95% of all queries originating in Europe are on local versions of the search engine. Given this background, we believe that delistings applied to the European versions of search will, as a general rule, protect the rights of the data subject adequately in the current state of affairs and technology." Meanwhile, Andrus Ansip, the EU vice president in charge of the digital single market, stated at the Google-sponsored Startup Europe Summit in Berlin that he felt the ECJ ruling should apply globally.  Neither opinion is binding - yet.

In the UK, a Parliamentary report looking into rising hate speech online and off suggested banning offenders from social networks with an "internet asbos." The report suggested, “There is an allowance in the law for banning or blocking individuals from certain aspects of internet communication in relation to sexual offences. Informal feedback we have received from policy experts indicates that this is a potential area of exploration for prosecutors in relation to hate crime...if it can be proven in a detailed way that someone has made a considered and determined view to exploit various online networks to harm and perpetrate hate crimes against others then the accepted principles, rules and restrictions that are relevant to sex offences must surely apply.” In the UK, Jews are eight times as likely and Muslims are three times as likely to be victims of religious hatred as Christians.

The British-based NGO Faith Matters fired a Rabbi representative for Tweets last Monday. The NGO, dedicated to reducing interfaith tensions, fired Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet for controversial Tweets about Palestinians. “A few tweets made by Rabbi Schochet have taken very strong positions which have led to difficulties for us." Difficulties allegedly include threats from some funders to withdraw financing for the NGO following the Rabbi's social media statements.

The French government issued a decree that requires Internet service providers (ISPs) to take down websites within 24 hours of receiving a government order. While government leaders claim this decree will help tackle terrorism, civil liberty groups argue the decree is too broad and threatens freedom of speech online.

Tuesday the volunteer Azov battalion, loyal to the Ukrainian government in Kiev, announced via Facebook that it had captured villages northeast of Mariupol.This puts the rebels closer to the Russian border.

Despite actively disdaining Twitter, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the account @RT-Erdogan to send his first signed Tweet encouraging Turks to stop smoking. “Get a grip of yourself against this poison,” Erdogan wrote, using the hashtag #SigarayaTeslimOlma (Don’t give in to cigarettes). The Twitter account, formerly run by Erdogan supporters, will now be run by Erdogan's official staff. The Turkish President will sign any Tweets that he sends out personally. 

On Wednesday, the 20-year-old Turkish student Ozgecan Aslan was raped and her body burnt by a bus driver. Her name has become a hashtag rallying Turks online and offline to protest the alleged increase in violence against women in the country.

A Turkish journalist kidnapped over a year ago by ISIS and released after 40 days of intense negotiations has just published a book about his hostage experience. The journalist, subject of a social media campaign run under the hashtag #FreeBünyaminAygün, feels that governments need to do more to protect journalists taken hostage.

Following up on the release of Australian Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste (subject of another social media campaign), his Egyptian and Canadian colleagues have also been released by the Egyptian government. The journalists were held for allegedly having published content that was "damaging to national security."

The Nigerian Governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, asked youth Saturday to use social media to engage the government in positive work. The Governor's speech was featured at the inauguration of a 1.7 km road at Umeh in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State. The road was initiated following a Facebook post by a local citizen pointing out the poor state of roads in the area.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has restored social media as well as Internet and mobile connectivity throughout the country following public unrest after actions by President Joseph Kabila to extend his tenure in office. Citizens had been using text and social media services to organise protests against Kabila. The government claimed turning off the Internet and mobile was necessary for the security of the country, given that protests last month led to 45 deaths and over 1000 injuries.

Namibia's ICT Ministry is poised to finish the the Electronic Communication and Cybercrime Bill. The Bill aims to protect Namibians from defamatory content posted on social media. If the bill becomes law, Namibians will be able to request the removal of defamatory images and information from social networks.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Professor Jonathan Moyo is now on social media (Twitter @ProfJNMoyo and Facebook.) The irony of his is social media presence has been questioned given Zimbabwe's reputation for controlling the national media both online and offline. Just this same week, Professor Moyo banned journalists from sharing photos of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe tripping on the stairs at Harare International Airport after addressing party supporters who had gathered to welcome him from the African Union Summit in Ethiopia where he assumed chairmanship of the continental body. Despite the ban, photos of the fall were leaked to social media. Moyo complained, “If you go to that sacred temple in Cambodia and you take pictures of yourself nude and so forth like some French people were doing a few weeks ago, the police come, they will delete. That is an appropriate reaction, if they don’t delete they  [the journalists] deserve to be fired,” said Moyo.

The Zambian President Edgar Lungu has asked Zambians at home and abroad to be kinder to the country on social media. The statement supposedly came as a result of Zambians in the diaspora criticising the country's Draft Constitution on social media. “Some Zambians have not read the Draft Constitution but they want it like yesterday. The roadmap is definitely there but I cannot speak on the issue because I am a President,” President Lungu stated as a part of his request.

In South Africa, the State of the Nation speech (#SONA2015) was the subject of several social media conversations before, during, and after the actual event. One satirical personality asked South Africans to #CommitYourSelfie to social networks prior the speech and ask President Jacob Zuma's Government to #PayBackTheMoney (allegedly $23 million) it squandered on "upgrading" a home for Zuma. During SONA itself, members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party disrupted the speech several times before being forced out by security. Several videos of the disruptions made it to YouTube and South African social media is still buzzing about the various national scandals.

The United Arab Emirates continues to prepare for the upcoming International Government Communication Forum (#IGCF15.) The Forum will host a social media corner and social media awards for the best Tweets and Instagram photos posted per session. This past week the OECD as well as representatives of the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Community Development; the Federal Demographic Structure Council; and the Emirates Identity Authority, praised the communicative efforts of the UAE, highlighting, among other things, its outreach to citizens via social media.

In India's capital, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) is celebrating a local election upset both in the halls of government and in social media. The opposing BJP party started the election season by taunting the AAP's chief ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal online for his large iconic muffler using the hashtag #Mufflerman. The AAP social media team took up the popular hashtag and turned it to Kejriwal's advantage, using the social media nickname to praise their leader's work. "Kejriwal emerged as the most influential of Delhi’s chief ministerial candidate on Twitter. In January, Kejriwal had 1.04 million mentions of his Twitter handle, far ahead of the 560,000 mentions for the BJP’s Kiran Bedi and 56,000 for the Congress’ Ajay Makan."

Vietnamese tech companies, including home-grown social networks like the now defunct Haivl.com, are finding that new national regulations could hinder or even shut down a erstwhile booming start-up scene.  The Ministry of Information and Communications shut down Haivl.com after the network featured content that the Ministry decided was "offensive to a historical figure" (Ho Chi Minh.)

In the Philippines, #ProjectAgos will host another social media workshop based on the success of its social media crisis management response during Hurricane Ruby.

The Thai Government aimed to use the hashtag #DinnerOnly to encourage Thai teens to abstain from sex this past Valentine's Day. The scheme backfired as Thai social media poked fun at the Government for its failed campaign. 

Australia celebrated Safer Internet Day with the introduction of legislation to centralise the protection of children online under the new office of the Children's e-Safety Commissioner.

While Kiwis in New Zealand celebrated #WaitangiDay online and offline, the Minister in charge of New Zealand's spies met his colleagues from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in London (the Five Eyes). The ministers published a joint statement that claimed they plan to work together to address terrorists' use of social media to radicalise jihadists.

American President Barrack Obama attended a California summit where he signed an executive order that aims to help the private and public sector work together to address cyber threats, including the use of social media to recruit terrorists.  Obama said, "So much of our computer networks and critical infrastructure are in the private sector, which means government cannot do this alone.  But the fact is that the private sector can’t do it alone either, because it's government that often has the latest information on new threats."

In the beginning of the week, a man shot and killed three Muslim students in North Carolina, allegedly over a parking space. The man claimed via his social networks to be an atheist. The tragic deaths initiated the social media hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter (recalling the campaign #BlackLivesMatter at the end of 2014.)

President Barrack Obama also released a humorous campaign to promote healthcare.gov/ and the final sign-up date (15 February) to 18 to 34 year-olds via the top site reaching this demographic in the USA, Buzzfeed. The campaign has been widely shared (with positive and negative comments) via social media.

The USA's National Security Agency also tried to be funny during Valentine's Day be releasing a few, slightly jarring Tweets including "Every move they make, every step they take. We’ll be watching our foreign adversaries. #HappyValentinesDay from the #NSA #vday2015," and "Roses are red, violets are blue, #NSA loves privacy rights and you. Learn more from NSA's #CLPO Director http://bit.ly/1CgYRGH  #vday2015."

Venezuelans honoured protestors from the #SOSVenezuela movement one year ago using the hashtag #YoSalgoPor (I go out for...) with the reason that they choose to protest the current Venezuelan administration. 

The Internet "Hacktivist" group Anonymous continues to target ISIS, this time via social media. The group posted a list of top ISIS social media accounts to the site Pastebin, promising to take down the accounts. “We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails, and expose you,” Anonymous explained in a YouTube video released last weekend. “From now on, no safe place for you online…you will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure.”

For more in-depth research this week, you can look at Kantar's China Social Media Impact Report. The report includes data from 13,341 online user surveys in China, as well as face-to-face interviews and text-mining of Weibo and WeChat posts.

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.