Everyday, millions of people use internet communication tools. Just about any writing on the internet could be considered an internet communication tool. Articles, social media, comments, chat rooms, and Q&A sites are all internet communication tools. In recent years, social media has grown to be the biggest internet communication tool. Social media is such a popular tool, because you can use it to keep in touch with just about everyone you know. However, one of the main problems with social media is that there is very little companies can do to innovate their sites. Most social media sites have a simple concept where you add friends, see what they post, and interact with their posts. After Myspace saw success with this formula, many other sites such as Facebook started using ideas from the site. Now social media has got to the point where sites are copying each others features, and barely trying to hide it. Instagram recently released a story feature, which Snapchat has had for years with the same name. People will always be interested by what others are doing, but a lack of new features on sites could lower the site’s popularity. For the time being, social media is a dominant force.
Evaluating the Internet
False information has always been a big problem for the internet, and likely always will be. Readers looking to find out about the most recent news stories often click on stories that have incorrect details, or are complete lies. Some websites tweak details of certain stories to make one side of the story look better, other websites just don’t receive correct information. There is also a large problem with satirical and trolling websites. These websites create crazy stories that are not true at all, but many gullible readers believe they are true and spread them to their friends. There is no clear cut solution on how to fix this issue, free speech protects people’s right to say whatever they want. However, a story could be considered slander if it tells lies about someone that will negatively effect their public image. Major news websites often feature fake stories from smaller websites without noticing. I think that one of the best ways for major news websites to make sure their news is legitimate, is to give the users the power to dispute a fact or remove news that is obviously fake from major news websites. The website could operate like normal, but users would be able to send a message to the author questioning certain details, or if a certain percentage of readers believe an article is fake, they can vote to strike it down off of the website.
Work
Recently, there has been a debate on whether or not employees should be able to bring their personal electronics with them to work. Many companies who handle sensitive data, and do not want to risk their information being exposed, give their employees work cell phones. With work phones, companies are able to monitor what employees are doing, and could easily trace any stolen information back to the employee who did it. In jobs that don’t handle much sensitive information, many employees carry their personal cell phones, along with using them for entertainment. Most jobs do not like employees using their phones for entertainment and have began to ban employees from downloading certain applications such as social media onto their personal cell phones. Many people question whether this is a violation of freedom of speech, as the employees cannot even use social media on their personal phones when outside of the office. I believe that in jobs that handle sensitive information, employees should be given a work cell phone, and leave their personal phones in their cars, or a company provided locker. In jobs that do not handle much sensitive information, employees should be able to use their personal phones in reasonable amounts.
An article talking about what companies can do to your work cell phone.
Fighting Online Crime
Online crime has become even more popular as technology has advanced. Hacking has become very popular, because the criminal has an opportunity to steal thousands of dollars quickly, with a low chance of ever being caught. Most of the time, criminals empty their victim’s bank account before it is even noticed. To help stop online crime, more focus needs to be put into improving online security. Programmers need to check their code for mistakes thoroughly. Hackers are often able to steal information because of poorly written code. The best way to stay safe from hackers is to use different passwords for every site, make your passwords complex, only use sites that you trust, and always download the latest software as soon as it becomes available. Using difficult passwords and changing them frequently, will make it harder for hackers to gain access to your account. Using different passwords for every site will greatly help you if you are hacked, as hackers will only be able to access one account instead of all of them. Using sketchy sites could lead to the owners of the site stealing your information. Downloading new software when it becomes available, will make it harder for hackers to get your information, as older software often has more bugs and has been around long enough to be exploited.
Phishing
Phishing has become a major issue in the online world. Criminals can send emails pretending to be an automated reply from a business, and end up with all of your credit card details. Many criminals have gotten so good at creating these emails, that it is hard to notice that an email is fake without looking at it for several minutes. Criminals will use email addresses that look like official business email adresses to trick the recipients. A common practice is to use a generic name like Jane Doe and an official company logo in the email, for the criminals to trick people into giving them their information. Larger companies need to find some way to show the recipients that they are real, perhaps the should use a verified system like the one Twitter uses. While working with email services to build this system would likely require a lot of work and money, it would be worth it to prevent people from being scammed. For now, all people can do is learn about phishing and try to be careful with what they respond to. In the future, criminals will become even better at developing these deceptive scams, and without a verification system, it will be nearly impossible to tell if an email is real.
Fair Use
Fair use is important in this modern age. Just about every form of media relies on fair use to protect some of its content. People upload entire movies to YouTube, although they are often taken down almost immediately. There are many YouTube videos where people watch someone else’s entire video and simply react to it. To avoid copyright infringement, some reactors even cut out parts of the other person’s video or change the pitch of the sound so their video is not taken down. Many people take songs and re-upload them to youtube, so they can make profit off of the artist’s song. All of these examples would likely violate fair use, and would therefore be copyright infringement. Many of the major music labels and YouTube creators have a program that automatically scans YouTube for videos that use their content. The program then lets users copyright claim other users videos. Some cases aren’t as clear. Many users will show a quick clip from someone else’s video, believing it to be fair use. These users are sometimes wrongly copyright claimed. Overall, as technology keeps developing rules on fair use will likely have to become much more complex. Laws on fair use will never be concrete. Article on false copyright claims.
Copyright
Copyright has become an important issue as the internet has evolved. Copyright infringement can range from playing a song in the background of a video to uploading entire movies to YouTube. There have been many famous lawsuits over copyright infringement, one I found interesting was over Obama’s hope posters. Street artist Shepard Fairley based the posters on an Associated Press freelancer named Mannie Garcia’s photo of Obama. Even though Shepard didn’t use the actual photo, and only based his poster on the photo, The Associated Press still tried to sue him for some of the profits of the posters. The lawsuit was settled outside of court by splitting profits. Copyright rules, especially those involving fair use, aren’t 100% clear. A judge who sees something as copyright infringement could have a totally different opinion than another judge. With the way the internet is constantly evolving, fair use will likely become less clear as new forms of media emerge. Websites need to establish firm rules on what fair use is, this will reduce the amount of copyright infringement cases. A series of simple rules on fair use will likely clear up a lot of the confusion that users might have about copyright infringement.
Anonymity
Anonymity is one of the most important parts of the internet. If people did not have the ability to be anonymous there would be much less hateful posts on the internet. However, many people think that people should be allowed to be anonymous on the internet, because not everything you do needs to be seen by others. If everything you did included your name, you would have to make an account for every website you use. One of the main arguments against anonymity is bullying on social media. Many people get bullied over social media, because the bullies do it anonymously. Without the real names of the bullies, there is often little that can be done to punish the bullies without contacting police and tracking the bullies’ location. While taking away the ability for people to be anonymous would help prevent a lot of bullying, it will also cause many inconveniences for people who are trying to use the internet in a responsible way. People also might not want everything they do on the internet to be seen by everyone. Anonymity is an issue that will likely be debated over for as long as the internet continues. There are benefits to both arguments, so the way the internet is set up now may be the best way to please everyone. Article about bullying on social media.
Censorship
Censorship has become a massive issue in media around the world. Governments and large businesses can threaten and blackmail smaller outlets into only writing positive things about them. Pressure from larger businesses can cause writers to remove details from their stories, or delete the stories all together. Censorship is a big issue, because when companies remove details from stories, it can change the meaning of the story completely. Many governments censor lines from stories that criticize them, this can give the illusion to readers, that the government is doing everything it can to help them. Censorship is not just a problem for writers, several musicians have also had some of their lyrics censored even on the explicit version of their albums. The secret service has forced several artists to censor lyrics that negatively talk about the president or government. Musicians like Lady Gaga, Eminem, and YG have all had some of their lyrics censored by the government. I believe the government is right to censor some of these lyrics as some could be interpreted as threats against the president. The government can force music labels to censor whatever they want. However, I believe, that the government should not censor lyrics unless they incite violence or terroristic threats. An article about censorship.
Privacy on Social Media
When people join a social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, they usually do so to be social with friends and family. But, an important issue in today’s social media filled world is privacy. Unless you have previously gone into your settings and changed your preferences, everyone on the internet can see everything you post. On most websites, people who do not even have accounts can view every post an unsecured account makes. If your account is unsecured, people can easily find information about you or steal photos of your loved ones. Many robbers also watch social media to see when people post that they are on vacation, robbers steal from their house when they see they are out of town. This article has tips on how to stay safe from these people. As the article says, the only way to guarantee your information will stay secure is to never upload it to the internet in the first place. Since many people cannot resist using social media, people just need to be as safe as they can when posting. Everyone needs to secure their accounts to where only their friends can see their posts. People need to make sure that they do not post any unnecessary personal info online.
Zac Conley 