There is so much to celebrate about General Comment 25, which for the first time spells out what digital human rights look like for people worldwide – people under 18, technically, but in many ways for all people. Because this addendum to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the first binding international document to spell out human rights concerning all things … [Read more...] about Youth rights’ digital upgrade: True cause for celebration
Law & Policy
Pepe the Frog, GameStop & the gamification of reality
You probably heard about GameStop, the WallStreetBets subreddit, Robinhood app and what’s been called the biggest “short squeeze” in 25 years – all of which was last week boiled down to the phrase “meme stock mania.” You also may’ve heard of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character created for a comic book in 2005 that somehow, in a weird, circuitous, Internet way, became a meme for the alt-right, … [Read more...] about Pepe the Frog, GameStop & the gamification of reality
Online safety after Trump’s deplatforming
Among many other things, the past 24 hours were a pivotal moment for content moderation – for online safety worldwide. I'm usually not US-centric in the way I think about online safety, but what happened in Washington and online, yesterday and since, and then with the global platforms, showed us how far our thinking – and questions – about Internet safety have come. Last night Facebook and … [Read more...] about Online safety after Trump’s deplatforming
New org for content moderation pros
This is a world first and great news at a time when everybody could use a bit of that: The Trust & Safety Professional Association opens its doors today. TSPA is a membership organization designed to support the content moderation community, the people all over the world who do the extremely challenging work of protecting social media users and freedom of expression at the same time. The … [Read more...] about New org for content moderation pros
An Oversight Board & what’s actually, urgently, needed
Below you'll find background and context to this pivotal point for social media. For a more prescriptive view, click to "Social media's turning point: 5 steps needed now, no turning back." Suddenly things that looked like important, almost radical (potential) fixes a few months ago now seem like “band-aids” or symptom treatments. Suddenly we need a great deal more. By “we,” I mean us, our … [Read more...] about An Oversight Board & what’s actually, urgently, needed