digcom18-blog

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

#8 Global Social Media // The Great Firewall of China

China’s online population of 731 million receives a highly restricted internet. Protecting China’s internet from foreign influence and securing their “cyber sovereignty” has led to the Great Firewall of China (GTW). GTW is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People’s Republic of China to regulate internet domestically. It’s role in the Internet censorship in China is to block access to foreign websites and to slow down cross-border internet traffic. (Wikipedia)

This means, people living in China don’t have access to Google, Facebook YouTube or the New York Times. Skype is the most recent service to be removed from the App Store with Winnie The Pooh being temporarily banned as well. According to research done by Freedom House, China has the least online freedom, closely followed by Syria and Cuba.

China hasn’t always had restrictions in regard to the internet, when the internet came about in 1994 it was fairly free. However, as its popularity grew, in 2000 the government put in place new laws and rules surrounding internet use and what people would have access to. This is when the Golden Shield Project was introduced. This was a database driven surveillance system that had capabilities of accessing every citizen’s record, and created the foundations for the Great Firewall of China.

Currently, the government employs about 50,000 people to enforce censorship. This role entails banning websites that are disapproved and forcing search engines to filter out certain content. There are also social media influencers that are required to post pro-government comments on social media sites, with an estimated 500 million comments per year.

With more than half of China’s population online, the government argues that the restrictions are about maintaining social order and safeguarding national security. They believe that news exerted by online platforms such as Google and Facebook is not necessary information to be consumed by the people of China, hence why they have put these security measures in place. Several people do actually agree with China’s security around the internet, Zuo Aining, a senior credit risk associate has said, “I personally think that for the Internet, as a very open platform, certain strategies for oversight are very necessary… what I’m concerned about are things like terrorist attacks.”

Critics say that this is obstructing freedom of speech in the country and that the approach constrains China economically. They say that this is prevalent because they are stifling innovation, preventing the exchange of important ideas and cutting access to services used by businesses like Google Cloud. They fear that if other countries like Russia follow in China’s footsteps, in relation to internet security, that the vision behind the internet could be seriously compromised. (Bloomberg News)

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewallhttps://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/great-firewall-of-chinahttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress-classof2012-internet/internet-living-with-the-great-firewall-of-china-idUSKBN1CM1FRhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/14/truth-behind-great-firewall-of-china-headlines

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

Gaming Communities // Social Gaming

Social gaming most commonly refers to the activity or practice of playing an online game on a social media platform that allows or require social interaction between players, as opposed to playing games in solitude. This can refer to social network games where communication between players is present, multiplayer video games and multiplayer online games. It can also refer to some not as obvious games, such as card games that involve multiple players, board games and role-playing games. In 2017 it was estimated that the social online game market in the U.S. was worth 2.15 billion U.S. dollars, with predictions that this figure will exceed 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

In recent years there has been a rapid growth in the playing of online interactive games, especially in the ‘gambling-style’ social games. Also knows as ‘social casinos’, they enable players to play casino games online, which is now one of the biggest branches of social gaming. Zynga’s Texas Hold’Em Poker game is the most popular social game on the Facebook social gaming platform, suggesting that social casinos are one of the strongest aspects of social gaming. The worldwide social poker revenue in 2017 was 76 million USD, and 22% of U.S. women aged 21 to 35 payed for social casino gaming in 2015.

Alongside Texas Hold’Em Poker game, there have been several other social games on Facebook that have attracted lots of users. One of these being FarmVille. In 2011 FarmVille was launched and allowed you to play individually or with your Facebook friends. It was easy enough to harvest crops and build your farm alone, but when you did it with your Facebook friends your productivity skyrocketed, and therefore attracted lots more users. The same gaming company then also released CityVille which became the most popular game on Facebook at one stage, with almost 100 million users.

Another Facebook game that attracted much attention was Words With Friends. This was an online game of scrabble that entailed you competing with any of your Facebook friends whenever you wanted. Words With Friends still continues to be available but has lost its popularity over the years. ‘It was successful because it emulates a classic game that everybody already understands – no need to worry about learning complicated new rules or devising intricate strategies. It’s just Scrabble.’ (Schreir, 2011)

Something that is an issue with social gaming is the idea of consent. Yesha Sivan says that ‘conventional legal analysis presumes that consent in a predominantly formal manner form the contractual terms of service that participants accept as a precondition of entry.’ This provides the legal basis for the relationships between a participant and a provider. However, in the online world, users more often than not press the ‘accept’ button on the terms of conditions without actually reading it, leaving it to be more favourable to the provider over the participant.

References: https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-7037462-dt-content-rid-40224782_2/courses/2018-HS1-MDA20009-227427/Suzor%20and%20Woodford_Evaluating%20consent%20and%20legitimacy%20amongst%20shifting%20community%20norms_EVE%20Online_201 3.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_gaming https://www.statista.com/topics/2965/social-gaming/ https://mashable.com/2011/02/15/top-social-games/#roBIOHkGdkqO

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

Public Health // Beyond Blue

Social media and the online world now play a major part in public health. ‘Public Health’ refers to “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organised efforts and informed choices of society, organisation, public and private, communities, and individuals.” (Public Health Networks) Mental Health is an aspect of health that has extensively been focused on as of late, a reason for this is that 3 million Australians are living with anxiety or depression. 

The relationship between mental health and social media and the internet is interesting. It has been made clear that the use of social media and ‘the FOMO factor’, according to McCosker, can be a contributor to anxiety and depression. However, social media and online campaigns are available to help those suffering from anxiety and depression that can be caused by the platforms that are helping those affected.

A health campaign that aims to address mental health is Beyond Blue. Beyond Blue ‘provides information and support to help everyone in Australia achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live.’ (Beyond Blue) Beyond Blue have created a website that caters to all kinds of people that need assistance with mental health issues. Beyond Blue have also expanded their reach by creating a Facebook and Instagram page that have large followings. The Beyond Blue Facebook page has more than 575,000 likes and the Instagram page has over 55,000 followers.

The Beyond Blue website provides the greatest amount of help and support to those that require it. It has pages and pages of information for people both suffering from a mental health issue and people who know someone that is suffering and being affected. Beyond Blue and other similar charities and campaigns provide a place for individuals to go to when suffering from anxiety or depression, which could in time lead to something even more serious.

People with mental heal issues are not necessarily likely to turn to a professional in the real world for help, this is where Beyond Blue makes a difference. Beyond Blue offers several services on their website that can be of assistance, they provide a Beyond Blue Support Service which includes a 24 hour and 7 days a week hotline number which allows people to talk to a trained mental health professional completely confidentially. Beyond Blue also have an online chat service which is available between 3pm and 12am daily for people to chat to a counsellor online. They also provide a more public service which entails joining a forum, where you can chat with members of the community and ‘learn from each other’. The website also has ‘suicide and crisis support’ which provides the telephone numbers to the Suicide Call Back Service and Lifeline for individuals who need immediate assistance.  

Beyond Blue have made mental health assistance much more accessible for those who need it through their social media and online platforms. They ease connections between patients, patient’s families and friends and health professionals.

References: https://nhphn.org/about-public-health/ https://www.beyondblue.org.au https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_186295_1&content_id=_7037390_1

[digcom18-blog]

[digcom18-blog]

Things the rest of the world has done to help

Improving the water supply of 340,000 people

Supplying drugs to five cholera treatment facilities serving 18,000 people 

Providing free medical care to 39,000 people

Giving tools and seeds to help 23,000 people in farming households support themselves

Providing improved shelter for 34,000 people

Giving information to 116,000 people about preparing for future disasters

Running literary classes for 60,000 vulnerable women to help them support themselves and their families

Training camp committee members to defend 25,000 camp residents from forced eviction.