Group items tagged

"Netizens warned against 'liking' photo Published: 19/10/2012 at 06:04 PM Online news: Thai web users have been warned against sharing or "liking" the controversial picture of a Thai reporter standing near a photo of the late Cambodian king visible in a newspaper placed on the ground. Information and communication technology (ICT) permanent secretary Chaiyan Peungkiatpairote warned that anyone doing so may be in breach of the computer crimes law. At a press conference on Friday he appealed to the Thai social network users not to forward or click "like" on the photo or messages associated with it, saying doing so may lead to conflict between the two countries. It may also violate the Computer Crimes Act 2007, which prohibits the dissemination of content deemed threatening to national security. The law provides for a maximum five-year jail sentence, he said. Mr Chaiyan also urged the general public to refrain from disseminating or otherwise circulating the image to help maintain good bilateral ties between Thailand and Cambodia. Cambodia's social media network was abuzz on Wednesday over a photo of Thapanee Eadsrichai, a well-known reporter from Channel 3, in which it appeared she was standing over newspaper photos of King Sihanouk placed on the ground. The photo drew extensive criticism from both Cambodians and Thais. The journalist and her Channel 3 bosses quickly apologised. Ms Thapanee said she had no intention of showing disrespect to king Sihanouk and the newspaper wasn't actrually near her, it just appeared so from the angle the photo was taken. The Thai Foreign Ministry also stepped in to clear the air over the issue. The Cambodian government said in a statement released on Thursday that all Cambodian people should avoid ill-intentioned attempts by some political groups to use the case to stir instability in the country and cause problems with neighbouring countries. "

This is an interesting case where even "liking" a photo could be deemed a "computer crime" in the Thai context. It is worth noting there that relations between Thailand and Cambodia have been tense for a variety of reasons, and that in both countries placing an image of a respected person below one's feet (which are considered dirty) is deemed a grave insult.

Distinction between "extractive" and "exclusive" states -- and how this logic could be applied to entities such as Twitter.

Web browser addons as political discourse.

Are you on the internet now?

Is the extraordinary the new normal? Is the internet changing our relationship to the extraordinary?

A nice commentary on the nature of online discussions, especially dealing with matters of gender and sexism.

On FeministFrequency I found a video from a person who motivates other 'dudes' to speak out against sexist bullying on the web. It's just what came to my mind when I thought about how to change this discussion culture mentioned in the comic. http://vimeo.com/44117178

Thanks Luise. The video is interesting, though I have to say I found the editing a bit annoying, but that's not really the point. I think what he's saying there really relates to issues raised in the Dibbel article, and also connects with some of the things that Postill says in the article for this week's discussion. This is all about establishing the "rules of the game" for internet sociality, which is of course a lot about how to define and deal with anti-social behaviour. The category of "troll" has emerged to categorise a particular form of online a-sociality, but what exactly a troll is still seems pretty unclear to me, and the debate is raging about how to deal with them. Dibbel's "Mr Bungle" is a classic description of a troll -- probably from before the concept of a troll was very widespread -- and his article is precisely about how an online "community" suddenly found itself in the position of having to determine specific rules of socialising, including sanctions for those who break them. In Postill, he is also critical of concepts like "community", which are very idealised and hide the specific processes which characterise the development of particular modes of sociality. He argues that we have to have an openminded approach as scholars which matches the "frontier-like" character of these exchanges. I.e. these are people in the process of establishing the social. They haven't simply inherited it from their elders. I read into the discussion that followed the video and it's also instructive because there are some quite thoughtful comments on precisely these issues of establishing normativity online.

Worth discussing