Spotlight on Peacebuilding: Internews

November 16, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Human Rights

Peacebuilding can only continue if those involved are able to spread information about what they are doing reliably and efficiently. This sometimes requires resources and training that are not easily available. Internews has worked in more than 90 countries to help train individuals in journalism and media coverage and provide solutions to problems that may arise in trying to disseminate news. With this in mind, Internews has helped support the creation of many media platforms, news sites, radio stations, and more. Additionally, Internews promotes fair media legislature and policies. This allows the news platforms that they help develop to operate with integrity and fulfill their functions.

In addition to supporting the creation of news and media platforms, Internews also researches and publishes best media practices, how media can affect peacebuilding, and more. One research project in collaboration with the World Bank Institute, the Media Map Project, seeks to understand the connections between the development of media and things like economic growth, gender equality, and other factors. The Media Map Project and other research is conducted under the Internews Center for Innovation and Learning, which is based in Washington, D.C. The Center for Innovation and Learning provides tools for communication, including free operating system software like Ubuntu.

For those interested in learning more about media development, the Center for Innovation and Learning produces blogs on the latest topics, ranging from the connections between Big Data and media to information ecosystems in Libera. To learn more about all of their projects, check out their website.

Source: Internews

Photo: Peace via Steve Rotman [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

How to use social media evidence in court

November 14, 2015 Abby Shulman Leave a comment Court, Privacy, Social Media

In February of 2014, Maria Nucci attempted to sue Target after she slipped and fell on a work shift. In response, Target requested access to her Facebook profile in order to gather evidence on Nucci’s quality of life following the accident.

Saying that she had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” because of Facebook’s privacy settings, Nucci declined, and 36 photographs were removed from her profile two days following her objection.

The case was taken to the Fourth District Court of Appeals for the State of Florida, where in January of 2015, the three-judge panel ruled in favor of Target’s request for Nucci’s Facebook photographs.

“Because information that an individual shares through social networking websites like Facebook may be copied and disseminated by another,’ the expectation that such information is private, in the traditional sense of the word, is not a reasonable one,” the panel ruled.

Courts are still navigating how to use social media as evidence in legal cases. Currently, the main two issues complicating social media’s role in the courthouse are privacy, as in the Target case, and authentication.

Many social media sites require only an email to sign up, and those who require more don’t use any system to verify whether the person creating an account is in fact who they say they are.

Gibson Dunn partner Jennifer Rearden sums up the difficulties in using social media profiles as evidence: “Anybody can put anything on the Internet, and most Internet sites are not monitored for accuracy, so just because you have a print-out of someone’s profile page doesn’t mean you actually have confirmation they are controlling that page.”

 
Article via Legaltech News, November 2, 2015

Photo: Tumblr via Corrado [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Facebook’s new report on government data requests

November 13, 2015 Abby Shulman Leave a comment Citizen Justice, Government, Social Media

Government requests for data about Facebook users increased 18 percent to 17,577 compared to the latter half of 2014, according to Facebook’s most recent transparency report. Beyond requests for information, governments insisted that the company restrict content that violated local laws. The amount of restricted content grew 112 percent to 20,568 pieces; a little over 15,000 of these were restricted by India. No other country limited over 1,000 pieces of data.

Facebook reported that it restricted content in India that was considered by the nation’s government to be “anti-religious and hate speech that could cause unrest and disharmony within India.”

Facebook publishes global government data request reports biannually, including the percentage of requests the company agrees to. Eighty percent of U.S. government data requests are granted.

Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general, introduced the report with a blog post: “As we have emphasized before, Facebook does not provide any government ‘back doors’ or direct access to people’s data. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary.”

Data on intelligence agency requests is released with less specificity, only in ranges of 1,000. According to the most recent report, the number of intelligence agency requests numbered somewhere between 0 and 999 for the first half of 2015.

Article via CNET, November 10, 2015

Photo: Mark Zuckerberg Keynote – SXSW 2008 via kris krüg

[Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Former Reddit CEO urges women and minorities to “Speak up” against discrimination

November 12, 2015 Abby Shulman Leave a comment Business, Citizen Justice

In March of 2015, Reddit’s former CEO Ellen Pao lost a widely publicized discrimination case against venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers. Despite the loss, Pao’s advice for tackling sexism and racism in Silicon Valley is to continue to “Speak up.”

Pao published an essay about her battles with discrimination in law and tech on Lena Dunham’s website Lenny.

“Unfortunately, some people just don’t treat men and women, white and minorities, heterosexuals and LGBTQs as equals. We could all work harder and better than everyone else, but we weren’t getting a fair shot to rise to the top,” Pao observed after entering the tech industry.

Yet, according to Pao, it’s (gradually) getting better. She cites women and minorities’ willingness to share “others’ bad behavior, data, and their own experiences publicly” as the main source of progress, and encourages people to continue to take part in public conversation about issues affecting them.

Pao’s high-profile discrimination case, though unsuccessful on surface-level, initiated conversations that lead companies like Apple, Google and Twitter to actively pursue diversity in their workforces.

Reddit users complained that Pao was engaging in censorship when she shut down five forums associated with online harassment. After receiving a petition with over 200,000 signatures for her to step down, Pao resigned from her position of interim CEO.

“I was called the ‘most hated person on the Internet’; a recent article even called me a ‘pariah of Silicon Valley’,” Pao admits. In the face of such hostility, she continues to advocate boldness and offer solidarity: “Don’t be silent… You are not alone. There are millions of women and men who are supporting you and want you to succeed.”

Article via CNET, November 10, 2015

Photo: Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network 2014 – Austin via Dell Inc. [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Spotlight on Peacebuilding: Mediators Beyond Borders

November 11, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Human Rights

Mediators Beyond Borders (MBB) believes that mediation is key for peacebuilding, since the “only lasting peace is the one built by the disputants themselves.” Therefore, their goal is to be able to bring mediation and organizational skills to communities experiencing conflict. In turn, those communities can use these skills to make a difference in their own lives and other communities. Currently, their volunteers are working with communities in Israel, Colombia, Sierra Leone, among others.

Mediators Beyond Borders also advocates for the importance of mediation. They are an official observer organization for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They use their position to advocate for legislature to include mediation in regards to solving climate change disputes. Additionally, they support endeavors to educate and increase awareness concerning mediation. Similarly, MBB provides consultancy services and will mediate disputes directly if asked. Not only will they train others in mediation, but they will also provide conflict resolution techniques. Their goal is to resolve issues and repair relationships.

Mediators Beyond Borders particularly advocates to put women in mediator roles. To restore communities who have faced conflict, peacebuilding must occur at every level of society and politics. It has been recognized that women are extremely necessary for this to occur, as advocated for by United Nations. Mediators Beyond Borders’ objective is to provide training for women that gives them a network of support and also establish peacebuilding projects that involve more women in social change.

To learn more about Mediators Beyond Borders, check out their website.

Sources: Mediators Beyond Borders

Photo: Peace via Steve Rotman [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Spotlight on Peacebuilding: ICTJ

November 10, 2015 Shelby Bice Leave a comment Human Rights

The International Center for Transitional Justice, or ICTJ, for short, is a an international nonprofit focusing on transitional justice. Transitional justice is defined as a “set of judicial and non-judicial measures that have been implemented by different countries in order to redress the legacies of massive human rights abuses” according to the ICTJ. In order to work towards accomplishing transitional justice, the ICTJ provides policymakers at all levels with technical expertise and advice based upon previous endeavors to undo systemic human rights violations. They also collaborate with those seeking transitional justice, helping everything from criminal proceedings to reparations in countries like Tunisia and Argentina. In addition to working directly to enact transitional justice, the ICTJ researches and reports on efforts to enact transitional justice around the world. In this way, the ICTJ can determine what the best practices are and pass them on to their contacts.

The ICTJ also has created content that allows individuals to learn about transitional justice and areas of the world that have been affected by human rights abuse. Their multimedia content contains photos, audio, videos, and interactive pages that allow users to learn about how individuals and groups of people have specifically been affected by transitional periods in their country’s history. They also regularly post news pertaining to issues of transitional justice around the world.

To learn more about the International Center for Transitional Justice’s work, visit their website.

Sources: “What is Transitional Justice?”; The International Center for Transitional Justice

Photo: Peace via Steve Rotman [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]