BCJ: Christchurch Exposes Risks Of Social Media

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The live Facebook broadcast of the mass murder of 50 people and the injuring of around 50 others in Christchurch, New Zealand, last Friday has been cited by Professor Anthony Clayton, chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, as giving credence to a call for social-media entities to face strong regulations locally, similar to proposals now being put forwards by other nations.

Armed with three rifles, two semi-automatic and one lever action, the shooter, identified as Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian national, live-streamed his attacks on two mosques, roughly six kilometres apart.

Tarrant is said to have posted on social media a 73-page manifesto detailing radical beliefs before executing the massacre. Prior to the attack, he is believed to have posted hints on Twitter of his intentions.

In the aftermath of the massacre, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden described it as one of the country’s darkest days.

A document prepared by Clayton and the commission’s executive director, Cordel Green, amended after the incident and which The Gleaner has acquired, pointed to the dangers social media poses globally and locally.


BCJ: Christchurch Exposes Risks Of Social Media


Social media is not the problem, it is people that are the problem.

Are vehicles, airplanes, ships etc in and of itself to be blamed because some people misuse it to commit criminal acts every day like robbery, terrorism, dangerous driving, using planes to transport drugs etc?

What about schools where children are subjected to bullying daily, are schools in and of itself considered the problem? What about the workplace where corruption is rampant, are workplaces in and of itself to be blamed for this.

What about forks, knives which people use every day, should these items to be blamed for criminal acts done using them. What about phones which criminals use to contact each other?

There are so many things invented that are used for good or for evil and these inventions themselves are not the problem. It is the people who are the problem.
 
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RDKirk

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To the extent that search engines funnel to people and suggest to people more of what they've seen before and imply thus imply by volume that the truth of the world is in one direction only, then social media does tend to increase extremism in a number of ways.

It's easy to make it obvious--just deliberately hit a few websites or Google a few topics outside your normal reading areas, and you'll get a bunch of things in those veins suddenly pointed your way.

Someone who doesn't make a determined effort to seek out the other side will get only one side.
 
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wing2000

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Social media is not the problem, it is people that are the problem.

Social Media empowers people who otherwise would not a platform. So while it is not the source of the problem, it certainly is part of the problem.
 
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