MALICIOUS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: CASE STUDIES FROM BBC MONITORING

Author(s): Olga Robinson / Language(s): English

BBC Monitoring (BBCM) is a specialist unit within BBC News that tracks thousands of international media outlets, including hard-to-reach broadcast sources, to report news from and about the world’s media and social media. Set up at the outbreak of World War II with the primary purpose of informing the War Office about propaganda by Nazi-controlled media, BBCM has a long history of tackling disinformation and misleading reporting. Over the past 79 years, the service has translated, explained, and interpreted media messages, from the broadcast propaganda of the Cold War to the multi-platform campaigns of today. The rise of social networks and instant messaging platforms has ushered in a new and fast-changing era for open-source media monitoring. Today, BBCM still relies on its detailed knowledge of media sources and behavior along with linguistic, regional, and cultural expertise to navigate the increasingly complex and muddled information space. In addition, it uses a range of tools for social media analysis, and continues to explore ways of using evolving technology to improve its journalists’ ability to track multiple sources and spot media manipulation. BBCM this year launched a new dedicated disinformation team, whose primary purpose is to spot, collate, and investigate examples of misleading reporting and manipulation, drawing on BBCM’s overall monitoring of global media. This report shows some of the disinformation techniques and tactics that BBCM journalists have come across in their recent work, and outlines the approach adopted by BBCM to rise to the challenges of disinformation in the 21st century.

IMPROVING NATO STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS TERMINOLOGY

Author(s): Neville Bolt,Leonie Haiden / Language(s): English

The proposal for “StratCom Terminology Improvement” came from the Netherlands, one of the founding member of the NATO StratCom COE, and was approved by the Steering Committee in December 2017. The Terminology Working Group held consultative sessions throughout 2018. Terminology projects are usually concerned with making communication within a specialized language community more efficient and minimizing misunderstandings. Improving StratCom terminology aims to unify different NATO agencies in their endeavors but also increase efficiency in planning and executing military (communications) operations. NATO is a multi-national organization with civilian and military personnel, working toward political and military objectives. A common language (in the broader sense) is one of the key success factors for effective Strategic Communications.

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATORS IN COUNTERING THE MALICIOUS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Author(s): James Pamment,Howard Nothhaft,Henrik Agardh-Twetman,Alicia Fjällhed / Language(s): English

This brief discusses the role of communicators in countering the malicious use of social media. It is based on the report ‘Countering Information Influence Activities: The State of the Art’ (2018) developed by the Department of Strategic Communication at Lund University and published by the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency (MSB).

INDUSTRY RESPONSES TO THE MALICIOUS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Author(s): Emily Taylor,Stacie Walsh,Samantha Bradshaw / Language(s): English

In November 2016, the idea that one of the world’s most sophisticated democracies could have been gamed by hostile states using social media platforms seemed ‘crazy’ to many people, not just Mark Zuckerberg. But as evidence continues to emerge, whether from FBI investigations, disclosures by whistle-blowers, or digitally-distributed disinformation campaigns in other countries, an uncomfortable picture takes shape — Silicon Valley’s leading technology platforms have found themselves at the centre of a perfect storm.

The Impact of Using a Robot Mannequin (RoMa) in Visual Merchandising

Author(s): Amirmahdi Hassani,Ehsan Saffari,Alireza Taheri,Minoo Alemi,Ali Meghdari / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Social robots applications are becoming more and more popular in our daily life. Advertising, in this case, apparel advertising, is an area that humans must deal with every day. RoMa is a social robot mannequin that has been designed and developed as a mobile robot for use in the field of advertising and visual trading. In this paper, characteristics such as the interaction of people with RoMa, the impact of using a social robot on the sustainability of a store’s brand name for customers, the desire to revisit the store for another purchase, and the robot's structural features were measured in a Tehran retail store using various tools such as questionnaires, cameras, and a microphone. Finally, customer preferences for the process of selecting and buying clothes as well as an examination of the mannequin’s display features have also been studied.

Fenomén lhaní v prostředí internetu

Author(s): Štěpán Konečný / Language(s): Czech

The author conceptualises his work as a contribution for clarifying the trustworthiness of virtual environment. The first part describes the theoretical background of the phenomenon of lying, not only in the context of virtual environment. The second part of the monograph takes into account such factors as motivation, influence, age, where lying on the Internet is described as perhaps the most complex. The subsequent part is focused on description of the relationship of individuals towards virtual friends and acquaintances in the context of lying and also making new romantic relationships. The last part is devoted to finding the most suitable predictors of lying on the Internet.

Pedagogicko-psycholologické otázky online vzdělávání

Author(s): Michal Černý / Language(s): Czech

The book focuses on the issues of online education in their pedagogical and psychological form, based on the concept of a cyberlogic concept of online learning. The first part focuses on the new interpretation and use of Bloom's taxonomy. In the second, it focuses on individual themes that are specifically related to online education – from self-evaluation or motivation to memory or gamming. It creates a previously unpublished set of key themes that can be of interest to both tutors and designers of online learning as well as to researchers in the field. The third chapter focuses on the possibilities of research in the online environment, or specific procedures and techniques that can be used here. The fourth chapter deals with cognitive psychology and positive psychology, two psychological schools that find the widest use in online education. The last chapter focuses on the topic of information behavior.

Informační systémy ve vzdělávání: Od matrik k sémantickým technologiím a dialogovým systémům pro učení

Author(s): Michal Černý / Language(s): Czech

"The publication Information Systems in Education offers a comprehensive and original view of this issue. Brings together the topics of designing information systems generally with topics that are inherent in other areas – legislation, service design, dialog systems, artificial intelligence, education and so on. Thus creating an interdisciplinary conceived, unconventional solutions a publication that strives to be the starting point for the creators of information systems in education. Among the various approaches to the issue of information systems creates a very unusual concept, which is written primarily for teachers and social and cognitive scientists. It has very few technical details and do not expect any special reader's prior knowledge of the area. The publication is designed as a surveillance monograph, which may offer some specific paradigm of development of information systems in education."

Wirtualna biblioteczka jako miejsce spotkań miłośników literatury

Author(s): Dominika Kobylska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Similarities and Differences between the French and the American Identity Construction in Populist Political Discourse

Author(s): Julianna Köpeczi / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Taking into account the current political landscapes both at the national and international levels, one might be tempted to assert that Aristotle’s dictum “man is a political animal” is even more relevant today than perhaps at any other time in history. Indeed, even Aristotle realized that the gift of speech—inherent to all—could have a positive or negative impact upon the life of an individual and/or community. We intend to analyze the manner in which populist political discourse came to be constructed and used within two particular instances, namely in the United States of America and France. Focusing on the aspect of identity construction, we will set forth a comparative theoretical framework highlighting the commonalities and distinctions between the two approaches, while also illustrating how these had been carried out at a discursive level.

Social Media Monitoring: A Primer. Methods, tools, and applications for monitoring the social media space

Author(s): Henrik Twetman,Marina Paramonova,Monika Izandra Hanley,Rolf Fredheim,Kristina Van Sant,Giorgio Bertolini,Alvin Lim,Sebastian Bay / Language(s): English

For the last twenty years, the phenomenon of social media has cemented itself as the new nexus of social interaction. With billions of users across the world, hundreds of online platforms, and a myriad of digital technologies at its backbone, social media is fundamentally reshaping our understanding of the global information environment. Today, social media is essential infrastructure for personal conversation, public debate, and commercial communication. While social media provides many opportunities for unprecedented information sharing, the rapid adoption of limitless communication technologies with instant amplification and global reach has also created significant vulnerabilities. Social media have, in many cases, become a conduit for unsubstantiated information, such as rumours, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.

Clarifying Digital Terms. NATO StratCom COE Terminology Working Group

Author(s): Neville Bolt,Leonie Haiden,Julian Hajduk,Elīna Lange-Ionatamišvili,Gundars Bergmanis-Korats,Giorgio Bertolin,Robert Hobbs,Louise Marie Hurel,Charles Kriel,Federico Lucidi,Sanda Svetoka,Johannes Wiedemann / Language(s): English

Digital technologies and means of communication have become a central part of politics and social organisation. The role of AI, big data, and machine learning is growing, as are ethical, privacy, and security concerns which these technologies bring with them. The purpose of this glossary is to encourage the use of precise and simple language that bridges the terminological divide between policymakers, soldiers, tech companies, academics, and programmers. It is at the intersection of their respective fields, that digitalisation’s potential for positive change as well as ensuing challenges can be recognised and addressed. Sharing a common vocabulary is the first step. As digitalisation continues to transform our societies, it has also influenced the language used to describe this process. Terms related to the developments and possibilities brought on by digitalisation can seem confusing. Digital vs. cyber vs. online, AI and machine learning lack distinction in popular usage and understanding. An additional layer of complexity is added by the multiplicity of language communities that exist in this field: from programmers and computer scientists, to communicators, politicians, militaries, academics, and the general public.

Social Media Manipulation 2020. How Social Media Companies are Failing to Combat Inauthentic Behaviour Online

Author(s): Sebastian Bay,Anton Dek,Iryna Dek,Rolf Fredheim / Language(s): English

Antagonists, from foreign governments to terror groups, anti-democratic groups, and commercial companies, continually seek to manipulate public debate through the use of coordinated social media manipulation campaigns. These groups rely on fake accounts and inauthentic behaviour to undermine online conversations, causing online and offline harm to both society and individuals. As a testament to the continued interest of antagonists and opportunists alike to manipulate social media, a string of social media companies, researchers, intelligence services, and interest groups have detailed attempts to manipulate social media conversations during the past year. Therefore, it continues to be essential to evaluate whether the social media companies are living up to their commitments to counter misuse of their platforms. In an attempt to contribute to the evaluation of social media platforms, we re-ran our ground-breaking experiment to assess their ability to counter the malicious use of their services. This year we spent significant effort to improve our methodology further, and we also added a fifth social media platform, Tik-Tok, to our experiment.

Abuse of Power: Coordinated Online Harassment of Finnish Government Ministers

Author(s): Kristina Van Sant,Rolf Fredheim,Gundars Bergmanis-Korats / Language(s): English

This report is an explorative analysis of abusive messages targeting Finnish ministers on the social media platform Twitter. The purpose of this study is to understand the scope of politically motivated abusive language on Finnish Twitter, and to determine if, and to what extent, it is perpetrated by inauthentic accounts. To this end, we developed a mixed methodology, combining AI-driven quantitative visualisations of the networks delivering messages of abuse with a qualitative analysis of the messages in order to understand the themes and triggers of abusive activity. We collected Twitter data between 12 March and 27 July 2020, a period spanning the state of emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is informed by the findings of three recent Finnish studies, one of which investigated the extent and effects of online hate speech against politicians while the other two studied the use of bots to influence political discourse during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections.

Medijska i informacijska pismenost: dizajn učenja za digitalno doba

Author(s): Emir Vajzović,Mario Hibert,Lejla Turčilo,Vuk Vučetić,Lamija Silajdžić / Language(s): Bosnian

Informirano, obrazovano i odgovorno donošenje odluka utemeljeno na kritičkom mišljenju je ideal i izazov s kojim se pojedinac i društvo kontinuirano susreću. Živimo doba tzv. liminalnih trenutaka, kada stara pravila prestaju da vrijede, a zajednice kojima ljudi pripadaju prestaju značiti ono što su nekada bile, vrijeme liminalnog prostora iz kojeg je izronila novomedijska zbilja upravljana vladajućom teorijom, tačnije uvjerenjem, da će tehnološka organizacija informacija stvoriti red iz haosa. Ako su tehnološke platforme imale za cilj organizirati svjetske informacije i učiniti ih univerzalno dostupnim i korisnim (Google), učiniti svijet otvorenijim i povezanijim (Facebook), zašto je sve onda toliko haotično? Ova dva navedena poslovna kreda, misije, poslovne filozofije, Googlea i Facebooka, direktno opisuju da je upravljanje diskursom društvene disrupcije, tačnije informacijskim neredom nastalim digitalnim stanjem (Stalder 2018) korporativna fantazma vrijednosti platformski posredovanog svijeta.

KARTELLEK OSZTÁLYZÁSA AZ ÁRRUGALMASSÁG ÉS A PIACI KONCENTRÁCIÓJA ALAPJÁN. EGY FUZZY INFORMÁCIÓS MÁTRIX ALKALMAZÁS

Author(s): Attila Szöcs,Hunor Burián,Zoltán Makó / Language(s): Hungarian Publication Year: 0

The introduction (1996) of the leniency program into the competition law of the European Union and its subsequent development(2002 and 2006) can be regarded as an effective measure in the fight against cartels. In spite of the fact that the leniency program proved to be a successful weapon against cartels, the European Commission needs additional means of facilitating the process of decision-making. We developed a matrix type instrument which operates with two market factors: price elasticity and market concentration. Since the quantities of these factors are uncertain, they can be characterized by fuzzy numbers. Our work sets as its target to develop a frame which makes possible the characterization of the cartels based on these two factors of the markets on which the cartels are acting now, or are likely to act in the future. Firstly, based on the two factors, the matrix will provide us with nine raw categories, which will be refined in probability categories using a fuzzy information matrix. These categories could provide the Commission with a useful means for prediction.

Bir Dijital Araç Olarak Cep Telefonu Uygulamalarının Toplum İyileştirmesinde Kullanımı

Author(s): Nadir Ateşoğlu,Nuriye Çelik / Language(s): Turkish Publication Year: 0

Dijital sosyoloji, dijital teknolojilerin toplum ve sosyal ilişkiler üzerindeki etkisini araştıran sosyolojinin bir alt alanıdır. Teknolojinin sosyal yapıları, kurumları ve kültürel uygulamaları nasıl şekillendirdiğinin yanı sıra sosyal aktörlerin dijital teknolojilerle nasıl ilişki kurduğunu ve onları nasıl anlamlandırdığını inceler. Cep telefonu ve sosyal medya uygulamaları gibi dijital ortamlar bize toplumsal değişimi anlamak için çok önemli imkanlar sunabilir. Diğer taraftan bu araçlar toplum yararına somut olarak kullanıldıklarında insan hayatına doğrudan olumlu etkilerde de bulunabilir. Bu çalışma dijital mobil uygulamaların deprem sonrası ortaya çıkabilecek büyük sosyolojik ve psikolojik travmaları azaltmada nasıl etkin kullanılabileceğini tartışmaktadır. İlk olarak dijital sosyoloji kavramı tartışılacaktır. Ardından kamu gücü ile desteklenmiş bir mobil uygulamanın depremin manevi yaralarını sarmadaki etkisine değinilecektir.

PRÁCA S INTERNETOM AKO INDIKÁTOR POČÍTAČOVEJ GRAMOTNOSTI OBYVATEĽSTVA SLOVENSKA

Author(s): KATARÍNA VILINOVÁ,Lucia Petrikovicova,Laura Babjaková / Language(s): Slovak Publication Year: 0

Computer literacy affects all areas of human life, and our subsequent control is almost inevitable nowadays. Due to the rapid growth of scientific knowledge and development of information and communication technologies, significant changes are taking place in individual countries. New technologies are coming to the fore through which there is an increase in country's economy, employment as well as labor productivity. To some extent, this fact is influenced by the ability of basic computer skills. This aspect is also important in terms of regional development at the national, regional and local level. The aim of the paper is to characterize selected indicator of computer literacy - internet work at three levels of Slovakia (state, district and municipality). The paper will be based by data from the Statistical Office of the European Union and Statistical Office of the Slovak republic. The methods of analysis, synthesis as well as graphical and cartographic methods will be the main methods used in the paper. Based on the achieved results, it can be stated that Slovakia achieved an average of 51.4 % in the development of internet use. It is very just above the EU average. At the regional level, the highest rate of internet use is manifested in the western part of Slovakia. At the local level in the case of the Nitra district, the internet was mostly used in the hinterland of the city of Nitra.

BARKÁCSKÖZÖSSÉGEK A DIGITÁLIS KORBAN

Author(s): Rozália Klára Bakó / Language(s): Hungarian Publication Year: 0

Our research brief is aimed at connecting two areas that are still separated both in our minds, and in many decision-maker approaches: environmental awareness and digital device usage. We summarized three research projects focusing on regional, European Union regulations, and mapping ways of implementing the circular economy of ICTs on both on organizational and individual level. It is difficult to reduce the amount of electrical and electronic waste unless strict regulations are implemented. The lifespan of digital devices can be prolonged only if users benefit from their right to repair. Do they even have such aright? Theoretically they do, practically they do not. When ecodesign principles will be implemented from 2022, digitalization and green thinking may go hand in hand in Europe.

Artificial Intelligence - A Challenge of the 21st Century?

Author(s): Gabriel-Virgil TAUBER,Sergiu-Adrian VASILE / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Artificial Intelligence is an innovation of modern technology, a concept transformed into reality. It is the result of sustained work by talented computer science pioneers who have turned their dreams into reality. As we have shown in this article, Artificial Intelligence brings both opportunities and significant risks, given the access some people have to data and information that can influence our entire existence. Human specificity lies in the desire to overcome one's limits and to make one's everyday life easier. However, in a society in constant transformation, we must be aware that not everything that helps us is necessarily beneficial, and vice versa. The future will be the one that will judge the direction of the technology of modern society and our ability to adapt to new challenges. This revolutionary field represents an opportunity, but also a vulnerability, which prompts us to reflect and analyze: "How long will we use artificial intelligence before it starts using us?"