Monday, April 27, 2015

Social media and government: 20 to 27 April

Summary

This week's newsletter includes a petition to patrol the Mediterranean to avoid more migrant tragedies, a quick look at how one entire Spanish town runs policy on Twitter, and a dive into British politics online pre elections (social media is less regulated than traditional media - so more nasty...) Also, in case you missed it, the anniversary of the Armenian genocide got a lot of online buzz because the Germans and the Austrians are now officially recognising it (kidding - most buzz followed the Kardashians visit to their ancestral homeland...)

Africans weigh in on social media about who is responsible for the migrant crisis. Nigeria recognises the importance and influence of social media in Nigerian politics. Ethiopians express anger about their government. Zambians plan to block social media in government offices. South Africans use social media to help reshape their offline political landscape.

Jordan's Crown Prince chairs a UN Security Council meeting. Syrians exchange social media (and real world) fire. Turks talk about trolls in Parliament. Saudis and Yemen discuss the value of a human life, Bentleys, and fighter pilots.

The earthquake in Nepal continues to receive online support and benefit from social media crisis coordination. China's leader has his first selfie posted while former Chinese netizens are careful about what they say online and off. India is debating net neutrality. Bangladesh is the source of the second annual Fashion Revolution Day, but campaigns around the Day are more global. Malaysia's ruling party is split over social media censorship. Indonesia prepares to execute some controversial drug dealers, despite social media campaigns that aim to stop the executions. Aussies debate the funding of a climate research facility.

Canada and the USA share some local social media practices.

Colombian leaders snipe at each other on Twitter. Argentina's social media focuses on what happened to Nisman, and whether or not the President or the Secret Service, or both, were involved (and whether or not it matters, in the end.)

Lastly, Equality Now (@equalitynow) is agitating for a female Secretary-General to follow Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations and @1for7billion would like to see a more inclusive and transparent UN Secretary-General selection process. Follow the developments on this campaign and others via the hashtags: #UNSG #She4SG #1for7billion #TimeforaWomanSG.

Europe

In addition to a petition calling for a racist journalist to be sacked for comments made about migrants crossing the Mediterranean to enter Europe, another petition has picked up a lot of signatures. This petition is addressed to the European Commission President and calls for the Commission to set up and maintain a "robust search and rescue" system covering the Mediterranean.

Sources: +BBC Trending

The European Commission hosted another Tweetchat and Facebook chat via the hashtag #EUdialogues while live-streaming a debate in Sofia, Bulgaria, with Andrus Ansip (@Ansip_EU), Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market. The dialogues are part of a programme by Commissioner Ansip to elicit citizen feedback.



The Digital Single Market plans will be revealed the 6th of May, and already Facebook, Google, and other US-based tech firms are nervous about what may be decided. In general, it looks like regulators are planning to ensure that "entrenched" Internet companies, largely based out of the USA, do not inhibit EU-based companies from participating in the Digital Single Market. What this means in policy and practice remains to be seen.

Sources: +Quartz

In the lead-up to the UK and the Polish elections, Euractiv and Katie Harbath, who leads Facebook’s Politics and Government Outreach team, held a roundtable on the role of social media in political communication.

Sources: +EurActiv Berlin

The United Kingdom

According to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, 11 ministerial departments spent a total of £1,172,496 to promote policies and campaigns between 2012 and 2015. This includes £20,000 on a Facebook promotion that only attracted 2,000 “likes”. The UK Cabinet Office spent £394,979 to advertise the “GREAT Britain campaign”, which aimed to encourage people to do business in the UK.

Sources: @jessicamckay7

With May 7 and the general elections just around the corner, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) chief executive Sarah Sillars is already pushing for better research-based safety regulations when it comes to driving. Sillars notes social media and connectivity are a safety issue in cars: “Cars are so advanced that they have become surrogate living rooms. But we are concerned about the distraction element of driving.” She recommends following the USA's example and creating laws that discourage drivers from taking their attention off driving for more than two seconds.

Sources: +Institute of Advanced Motorists, IAM

The UK political parties are pouring resources into social media this election year. Given the regulations that govern other forms of media during election season, social media is where political players can engage in more "US-style" electioneering - including attack ads, vague innuendoes, and conspicuous self-promotion as well as criticism and mockery of their opponents. "The rise of digital campaigning is in reaction to something fundamental - the electorate are increasingly turning to digital spaces for their information and opinion," Carl Miller, research director of the Center for the Analysis of Social Media at think-tank Demos, told Associated Press report Jill Lawless (@JillLawless). "For young people, 34 percent of them say social media will influence their vote, which is huge."

Sources: @JillLawless, +Associated Press and CNN


ElectUK, an app from Tata Consultancy Services that monitors Twitter activity during the election campaign, has cited the economy as the most essential topic in UK politics Twitter chatter. Over a third of relevant Tweets mention the economy, followed by health.

Sources: @thesmallgalleon

More mainstream #election2015 / #ge2015 issues can be found by checking out the hashtags - or the Twitter box below. (Sorry I didn't do this for #NigeriaDecides. Next time...)


Spain

Next month, Spain's "El Alcalde Digital"( Digital Mayor) is up for re-election. Rodríguez Salas is the mayor of Jun, a small Spanish town that he has integrated into Twitter. For the last four years, Salas aimed to ensure government transparency and accountability through using Twitter to allow citizens to speak directly to him and vice versa. His attempt appears to have been largely successful, with older or less tech-savvy citizens having been educated in how to use Twitter at a local school to ensure no one is left out of the loop[s]. There are some complaints, and the entire real-world experiment is being studied and documented by the MIT Media Lab in the USA. At MIT, academics have studied the digital alliances the run the town and collected anecdotal feedback from citizens. It will be interesting to see if Salas wins his next election and if the real-world experiment will continue. (Translations below done by MIT. #Jungetsgoing or, in Spanish, #JunSeMueve, is the town's hashtag.)



Sources: @HamletsBB, @dkroy


Armenia

April 24th is widely considered the anniversary of the start of the genocide in which the Ottoman Turks killed approximately 1.5 million Armenians. Armenians at home and abroad used social media to share the stories of the victims and the survivors. To see some of these stories, check out the hashtags #AG100 #AG1915 #AG. The use of the word genocide is "legally and morally problematic," according to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey, who offered his condolences to Armenia this past 24th. Turkey and many other countries - including the USA - refuse to use the word genocide when officially referring to the slaughter.  However, the Pope in addition to several other global leaders (including those of 21 countries such as Canada and France and most recently Germany and Austria in 2015), have officially recognised the Armenian genocide.



Sources: +CTV Toronto


Africa

African social media is abuzz as Africans debate where the bulk of the blame lies when it comes to the many migrants that die as they try to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. They also continue to debate the potential solutions - EU emergency diplomacy, unfortunately, is not perceived as a real fix.



Nigeria

The International Center for Journalists Jerri Eddings interviewed Sunday Dare (@gebusites), current chief of staff and media adviser to the Bola Tinubu, head of the political party of recently elected Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari). The discussion centered on the role of social media in the Nigerian elections. Sunday opened the interview with this statement, "I think this election was decided, dominated and directed by social media. The power of social media came out for this country. Social media played a central role as a watchdog in keeping the integrity of the process. Within minutes of votes being counted at a polling unit, the results were all over social media. Ordinary people with Excel sheets were doing tallies. At the end of the day when it was announced officially, the results matched. So social media were central because of the immediacy, because it was in the hands of so many citizens who were involved, who were interested. In a way, social media seized the day from the legacy media. You had almost everyone depending on social media for the breaking news. Social media came alive for us this time." Dare highlighted the participatory and immediate nature of social media which was a great advantage. Plus, irresponsible and biased coverage discredited a lot of the traditional "legacy" media, causing people to look elsewhere for news. Dare also credited the ability of people to "set the agenda" through social media and said President-elect Buhari, known for hardline policies from his earlier time as leader, will follow the Nigerian Constitution when it comes to Nigerian media.


Sources: @ICFJ’s @JerriEddings 


At the induction of new members to the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the NIPR President Dr Rotimi Oladele asked the Federal Government to work with others to help regulate and control the activities of Nigerians on social media. "The government at various levels in the country must work with the traditional media, professional bodies like the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) to work out modalities to regulate and control the flow of information online," Oladele stated.



Sources: @allafrica



Ethiopia

Ethiopians used social media to question their government's silence after the beheadings of Ethiopian Christians in Libya. In a video circulated two weeks ago on social media, ISIS militants beheaded 28 Ethiopian Christians. In addition to staging street protests, Ethiopian Facebook netizens accused their Government of remaining silent while others condemned the killings.On Twitter, Hallelujah Lulie, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, noted that Ethiopians can't even demonstrate against ISIS. An Ethiopian official that used the murders to try to dissuade Ethiopians from migrating from Ethiopia via Libya was also criticized in Ethiopian social media.
The White House released a statement condemning the killing of the Ethiopian Christians. Oh EPRDF you will rot in hell for this.
Posted by Mahlét Solomon on Sunday, April 19, 2015
Sources: @globalvoices


Zambia

The Zambian government plans to block some social media websites being accessed in government offices during working hours. Zambia's Secretary to the Cabinet Rowland Msiska said, "My office is working on e-governance and Zambia Telecommunications Company, together with the Ministry of Communications, Transport, Works and Supply is already rolling ...out [a programme to use software and hardware to bar use of social media sites like Facebook]. This is the one to be used by civil servants in offices." Msiska said too many civil servants were using sites like Facebook during working hours and this, he claimed, promotes laziness. Critics note that the Zambian Government also heavily controls the traditional press, and social media allows national officials and others to access news and information that would normally be filtered by the government.

Source: @michaelmalakata, +ITWeb Africa 


South Africa

Last March the social media campaign #RhodesMustFall accompanied the public defamation and eventual removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at Cape Town University. The statue, activists argued, represented the historical colonialism of the country. The movement is not over - online and offline discussion has coalesced around the statue's removal (and the hashtag). Discussion covers South Africa's past and the relevant stone images ("colonial statues") representing outdated aspects of that past. The Government has proposed the creation of a task team to identify, discuss, and potentially relocate offensive statues in the next three to five years. Additional names, symbols and sites will also be indexed and considered for alteration. An awareness-raising and educational campaign and public forum will accompany the changes.
Sources: +Times LIVE, @kameelpremhid 

Middle East


Turkey

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Chairman Veli Ağbaba asked Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu if the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) trolls work for the AK party or for the presidential office. In his official Parliamentary question, Chairman Ağbaba asked, "How many people constitute the AK troll team? Is there a hierarchy among its members? Are these trolls paid a salary? If so, how much do they get paid? Is it true that these trolls are subordinates to AK Party deputy Chairman Süleyman Soylu? Was Soylu's transfer to your party for this purpose? How do you assess the claims that the troll team has now become autonomous and began serving the presidency rather than the AK Party? Are this team's activities of defaming and threatening people legal?“ He also asked where the trolls were physically hosted and if they co-ordinated with the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) or any foreign spy rings. AK Party trolls smear Government opponents online.

Sources: +Todays Zaman

 Syria

The hard-line rebel group Nusra Front, associated with al-Qaida, used social media to celebrate pushing Government forces out of the strategic Syrian city Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province. The group Tweeted about the "liberation" and shared photos of rebel fighters atop tanks surrounded by the stacked bodies of Government soldiers. Government forces replied via more traditional media, stating that they had pulled out to avoid civilian casualties, and then retaliated against the rebels with up to 30 air strikes.

Sources: +Star Tribune


Jordan

Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah argued that social media can be used as a tool to empower young people, the "prime victims" “lured into the dark world” of terrorism and extremism. The Crown Prince, age 20, became the youngest person to chair a United Nations Security Council meeting when expressing his views on social media and terrorism. Jordan currently holds the rotating Presidential position of the UNSC.
Sources: @AquilaStyle


Saudi Arabia and Yemen


Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family and one of Saudi Arabia's richest men, Tweeted, "In appreciation of their role in this operation, I'm honoured to offer 100 Bentley cars to the 100 Saudi [fighter] pilots" that bombed Yemen. This set off a firestorm of social media exchanges across the Middle East. Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the region while Saudi Arabia is one of the riches.

Sources: +BBC Trending


Asia


Nepal

The devastating earthquake in Kathmandu on April 25th left thousands of people dead and/or missing. While authorities are responding, social media users in and around or connected to Nepal - including huge numbers of Chinese, for whom Nepal is a popular tourist destination - have gotten several social media lists of the missing, the dead, and the living, up and running. In addition to co-ordinating and sharing local information with those on the ground and those far away, social media is being used to collect and call for aid to the affected areas. 

剛剛電話聯絡到朋友，得知帕坦的Durbar Square受創嚴重，心裡很是難過。立刻上網找到了現場圖片，看了更難過。https://twitter.com/b_richardn
Posted by 尼泊爾達人Ruby on Saturday, April 25, 2015

Sources: +Global Voices

Several insensitive comments or advertising promotions released around the time of the quake later issues apologies once the gravity of the quake became apparent. This includes a Tweet from the Indian political party leader Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) and advertising from the companies ScoopWhoop and Lenskart.



Sources: +Hindustan Times

China

Two celebrity Chinese netizens arrested after being outspoken on Chinese social media with regard to government transparency are back in the public's eye. Wang Gongquan appeared to give a talk on entrepreneurship, his first public appearance since being released from police custody in January 2014. Gongquan, a real estate mogul, had admitted to helping finance protests affiliated with the legal activist Xu Zhiyong's New Citizen's Movement. The Movement advocated for rule of law and increased government transparency, among other issues. Gongquan is still on the Chinese Twitter-like network Weibo, but he sticks to business and avoids mentioning politics. Likewise, Pan Shiyi, another business celebrity, spoke about the responsibilities of entrepreneurs to beautify the community. Earlier in 2012/2013, Pan led a large online campaign that forced the Chinese Government to be more transparent about air pollution. However, he has limited his social presence in recent years due, allegedly, to pressure from the central Chinese Government.



Sources: @joshchin

China's leader Xi Jinping also posed for his first selfie, generating a lot of online buzz. Fadli Zon (@fadlizon) of the Great Indonesia Movement Party took the photo at the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta and posted it to Twitter. The image made its way on to the Chinese Weibo network and got shared 30,000 times.



Sources: +BBC Trending

India

Indian teachers in the region of Chennai led a fast to demand equal pay with teachers form the central Government. The DMK party leader M K Stalin gave his support to the teachers via a public Facebook post: "On behalf of the DMK, I extend my support to the teachers and appeal to the AIADMK government to immediately call them for talks and address their demands."

Source: @EconomicTimes

A potential political opponent for the leadership in the next federal election, Rahul Gandhi has become a strong proponent of net neutrality - accusing the existing leadership of coddling corporate entities. Gandhi told the Lok Sabha, "Please stop the consultation and look into either changing the law or writing a new law for net neutrality."(The Telecom Regulatory Authority is running a consultation on net neutrality laws, as mentioned in this blog last week.) One million people have registered online to fight for net neutrality, Ghandi pointed out. Ironically, Gandhi is not active on social media (i.e. Twitter and Facebook) while the current Prime Minister is. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, angrily responded,"Our government does not come under pressure from any corporate nor will it ever come [under pressure to abstain from net neutrality]...In January 2015 itself, I had made a committee in my department and told them to monitor the entire situation, the report is expected in the second week of May."



Sources: @rsprasad, @HuffPostIndia

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad submitted a written note to the Lok Sabha noting,  "There is no proposal with the government to monitor social media on the Internet." However, Prasad noted, under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011 under Section 79 of the IT Act, Government intermediaries must observe due diligence in the course of their duties. This may explain why the Government monitors online reactions to policies and initiatives.

Source: +The Economic Times, @rsprasad


 Bangladesh

Thursday, 24 April was  the world's second "Fashion Revolution Day." The online event is held on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. Users of the hashtag #whomademyclothes demanded that fashion companies respond with how, by whom, and for how much clothes their clothes were made - though, of course, not all fashion companies did.  Last year, the Day included talks between UK and EU officials and sustainable development / fair trade authorities.

 Sources: +Lee-Sean Huang, @stephepburn


Malaysia

Malaysian Government Retirees Association president Wan Mahmood Pawan called for more government control over social media: “A special law specifically to filter information flow on social media would allow defamatory and negative information to be controlled systematically....There is no gatekeeper in social media, resulting in unverified or even false information being circulated to all and sundry who may believe them without further verification.” Pawan was responding to a comment from a former Malaysian Prime Minister that social media and other Internet content like pornography are "poisoning the minds" of Malaysian youth.

Sources: +Free Malaysia Today

Internal rifts in the Malaysia's ruling party - its only ruling party since 1957 - have become more apparent. Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohama, gave the speech "Social Media and the Future," at the Malaysia Social Media Week conference on the 23rd of April. In it, he called outright for Internet, particularly social media, censorship.

Sources: @LeslieShaffer1

Indonesia

Referencing the Bali Nine, covered in late February in this blog, the Australian and other foreigners involved in a drug smuggling ring are set to be executed in the near future. Mary Jane Veloso, a single mother and Philippine maid, is also set to be executed for her part in the drug ring. Her position has sparked sympathy among the Indonesians who feel that she was exploited by more powerful members of the ring. A social media campaign backed by several celebrities have suggested #MaryJane was the victim of human trafficking and should not be executed with her abusers.  The famous editor of a feminist magazine in Indonesia, Dewi Candraningrum, Tweeted, "Is my President a murderer?" in a plea to have the Indonesian President pardon the maid. 



Sources: @snksounak

Australia

Social media is abuzz with Dr. Bjorn Lomborg's (@BjornLomborg) name in Australia. The controversial scientist denies the scientific community's general consensus that climate change is an immediate problem that requires quick government attention.  He calls himself a "skeptical environmentalist" while others call him a "climate change denier." He received a 4 million dollar Government grant to create a think tank with the University of West Australia last week. Leaked documents suggest that the Abbott Government's support of Lomborg made the grant possible.


Sources; +The Age, +The Canberra Times

Australians in the Capital region took to social media to publicise their disappointment with the free bus services offered for ANZAC memorial day. (ANZAC day memorialises Australian and New Zealand armed forces as mentioned in this blog here in relation to another social media controversy.) The day attracted 70 000 more tourists than expected, and the free transportation offered was unprepared for the unexpected jump in participants.
That said, there was also a lot of positive buzz around the day, including a debate on various social media platforms about the meaning behind the day.

Sources: +ABC Australia

North America

USA


Now that the Office of Government Ethics has issued guidelines on employee use of social media - both personal and professional - they may soon turn to how to store social media as public records. Ir your federal, state, or local Government offices have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social accounts, how do they store official communications like comments, likes and reTweets? Some download the comments, some try to regulate what a comment is, and others do nothing. But what is best practice?



Sources: @OfficeGovEthics

The Center for International Media Assistance in capital of the USA, Washington DC, hosted a series of seminars for World Press Freedom Day (). The seminars and events online and off focused on press freedom in Africa.

Sources:  @YeleSowore, @CIMA_Media

 

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is stepping up security measures in light of a recent report that followed the arrest of a baggage handler who helped a criminal smuggle guns onto an airplane. Security measures will include monitoring social media in and around specific airports. In addition, existing and potential employees will be monitored in their social media communications as well as undergoing additional background security checks and on-site screening. The report notes that, "The most notable opportunities for [security] improvement include: collecting additional threat information through social media....Current intelligence indicates that a primary method of communication between criminals, extremists, recruiters of radicalization candidates and pre-operational planners is through social media...Therefore, TSA should further explore the use of social media to track and assess emerging threats that may pose a threat to aviation..."

Sources: @Nextgov, @HelloFairchild

In case you missed it, the (in)famous White House Correspondents' Dinner occurred this past week. The week long affair of journalists and celebrities sharing drinks and jokes with politicians culminates in a dinner with the President on the 25th. The Dinner generated a lot of social media, at times shallow (as many argue the dinner is) and at others introspective.
Kansas University is hosting a community gathering (offline) after several online posts including graphic racist commentary were tracked via an app's GPS coordinates to locations on campus. The dialogue is designed to identify and address the problem and come up with ways to react to the anonymous posts in a constructive manner.


Sources: KSN.com

The man who shot (and failed to kill) former US President Ronald Reagan may soon be released from a psychiatric facility to live with his mother - on several conditions. One condition includes his inability to set up any social media accounts.

Sources: @jessicagresko


Canada

In Canada, provincial politicians in Manitoba took to social media to criticise the current Government for pushing back plans to balance the budget.  
In Prince Edward Island, social media is being used to allow voters to participate directly in how politicians and political parties work. For example, the Green Party, which will not accept corporate donations, created a sign, printed it, and posted it to Facebook commenting, "This sign is going to cost $100 to print and install, would anybody like to adopt a sign?" Quickly, seven people agreed to support the Green Party's signage.


Posted by Green Party of Prince Edward Island on Wednesday, April 22, 2015


Sources: @JournalPEI

In early February, three journalists were arrested by the Egyptian Government on suspicious charges. One was the Australian Peter Greste, who was the centre of a social media campaign to free him. The campaign was successful and was covered in this blog. The other arrested journalists included a Canadian and an Egyptian. Canada has now finally issued a passport to Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalised Canadian citizen, so that he can return to his official country.

Sources: +The Guardian


South America


Colombia

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos)took a veiled shot at former President Alvaro Uribe (@AlvaroUribeVel) for allegedly undermining the ongoing Colombian peace process, commenting "It is very easy to continue talking about war sitting at a desk or from behind the trenches of social media." The peace process stalled - temporarily, according to participants - after a violent attack in the southern Colombian region of Cauca on FARC rebel positions.


Argentina

At the end of January, Argentinian social media and traditional media speculated that the Government was involved in the alleged "suicide" of Prosecutor Alberto Nisman. As mentioned in this blog, Nisman was alone when he killed himself, and he was hours away from presenting allegations that the Argentinian Government covered up Iran's role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. The suspicious circumstances of his solitary suicide along with the allegations caused a furor of social media buzz, even prompting Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to question the alleged suicide on Twitter. President Kirchner this past week accused Jewish leaders of an international conspiracy against the Argentinian Government. She claimed in her personal blog (in English and in Spanish) that Nisman was in some way related to Paul Singer, the owner of a hedge fund involved in a lawsuit looking to collect on Argentina's national debt. (Kirchner calls hedge funds "vulture funds.") Last Tuesday, a federal prosecutor dismissed the accusations by Nisman, saying “it is not possible to move forward with the evidence-gathering measures proposed because those events do not constitute a crime.” Nisman's family and supporters continue to rally online and offline for authorities to more fully investigate his alleged suicide.


Sources: +Cristina Fernández de Kirchner  @ProPublica,

And, as always, for more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.

You can also follow this and relevant news on +Social media in government on Google Plus or on Facebook. 





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