Social media in government: 30 November to 6 December 2014

In general news, Facebook blogged in “Making connections to Facebook more secure” that the social network is now directly available to Tor users. This "provides a way to access Facebook through Tor without losing the cryptographic protections provided by the Tor cloud."

In Mexico, the anti-government hashtag #YaMeCanse has been replaced with #YaMeCanse2 after #YaMeCanse mysteriously disappeared on Twitter. Users blame “peñabots,” fake Twitter and Facebook accounts that aim to "confront criticism" against the very unpopular Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his government.

The USA democracy watchdog organisation Freedom House published its 5th annual Freedom on the Net report. The report looks into internet freedom in 65 countries between May 2013 and May 2014. Overall, 41 countries created legislation to limit freedom of speech online in some way, 38 countries arrested individuals for online communication (the Middle East and North Africa were highlighted as particularly punitive), and it looks like government is making it increasingly difficult to be an independent news site.

In the USA, a New York grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man and father of six in New York City who was doing nothing wrong and was unarmed at the time of his death by strangulation. This kicked off a number of online (and offline) protests under the hashtags #CrimingWhileWhite and #AliveWhileBlack. Meanwhile, the hashtag #HandsUpWalkout remains strong, continuing to spike offline demonstrations in remembrance of the police shooting of an unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Missouri.

The US government has also cautioned soldiers to be careful on social media as ISIS may be tracking US military via their social media accounts. 

Canadians are attacking a #Bill10 Amendment in the province of Alberta. The Amendment makes it possible for schools to avoid allowing students to set up gay-straight alliance on campus. Online protesters, including a Canadian sports star, have criticised the government for promoting discrimination through the amendment.

In the UK, Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank, issued a white paper called The Role of Prevent in Countering Online Extremism. The white paper calls for the UK Government to develop positive long-term measures to counter extremism, including outreach via social media.

The UK Crown Office issued social media prosecution guidelines this past week. Social media prosecution in the UK may be permissible when social media posts:

• "specifically target an individual or group and are considered to be hate crime, domestic abuse, or stalking
• constitute credible threats of violence to the person,damage to property or to incite public disorder
• may amount to a breach of a court order or contravene legislation making it a criminal offence to release or publish information relating to proceedings
• do not fall into the above categories but are nonetheless considered to be grossly offensive, indecent or obscene or involve the communication of false information about an individual or group which results in adverse consequences."

In Ukraine, the creation of a new Ministry of Information Policy has caused widespread ridicule on social media. From fake Twitter accounts to trending Tweets renaming the Ministry the "Ministry of Truth", the online backlash has caused Yuriy Stets, the new Ministry's leader and the former head of the Information Security Department of the National Guard of Ukraine, to try to explain the idea behind the Ministry in a Facebook post.

The Kenyan government announced plans to introduce policies to monitor social media abuse by Kenyans. Controversial and sometimes violent content has made it onto social networks following, for example, a recent Mandera Bus Attack.

South Africa remembered the death of leader Nelson Mandela December 5th. Online, the hashtag #RememberMandela allowed users to share memories and images of Mandela's life and legacy.

Turkish columnist Ali Tezel (@tezelali) revealed in a Tweet Monday that he was fired by his paper Habertürk due to personal Tweets criticising the Turkish government's reaction to a mining accident in Soma in which 301 people were killed.

In Egypt, the court dropped all criminal charges against former President Hosni Mubarack, spurring protests. During the Arab Spring, an uprising arguably organised largely via social media, many of those involved called for the immediate dismissal and jailing of the corrupt leader. His release is seen another step backwards, calling into question the effectiveness of the uprising.

Indian Minister for Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad reported to the Indian Lok Sabha that fake or duplicate social media accounts are on the rise in India. "In most of the cases, such fake/duplicate accounts were successfully disabled in association with social networking sites having offices in India," Prasad reported.

A study of Chinese social media attacking the Chinese government for its environmental policies (or lack thereof) found that much of the online conversation was hijacked by corporate or government accounts. “Citizens acting online made some real changes to how the government handled the air pollution problem, but government and corporations used the same online tools to advance their own agendas,” a lead researcher noted. The same researcher observed, "The most influential users in the debate were almost entirely composed of government sources, companies or famous individuals."

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announced it will monitor social media for seditious remarks as a part of plans to empower the Sedition Act of 1948 and counter online extremism.

Social media in the Philippines is abuzz with jokes following the ill-conceived public service video "Gaga Girl, Bobo Boy" aimed to educate Philippine youth about teen pregnancy. This is not the first government viral video to achieve unintentional popularity.

Finally, the Australian parliament introduced a bill this past week to create a Children's E-Safety Commissioner office.  The Commissioner would work with Australians and social networks to take down posts that constitute cyberbullying. Under the bill social networks could be fined up to 17 000 Australian dollars a day for not taking down identified content. 

For more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter.

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.