June 2020 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

COVID-19 seminar #7: "Seeing Indigenous Land Struggles in COVID-19, " Dr Will Smith, Dr Noah Theriault, Dr June Rubis
by Thao Phan 02 Jun '20

02 Jun '20

*COVID-19 seminar #7: Dr Will Smith, Dr Noah Theriault, Dr June Rubis* https://smiththeriaultrubis-seminar.eventbrite.com.au <https://smiththeriaultrubis-seminar.eventbrite.com.au> Please join us for the FINAL seminar in the COVID-19 seminar series, co-hosted by the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation <https://www.deakin.edu.au/adi> (ADI) and the Science and Society Network <https://scienceandsocietynetwork.deakin.edu.au/> (SSN). *Title:*Seeing Indigenous Land Struggles in COVID-19 *Abstract:*Popular and academic commentary on the multispecies assemblage of COVID-19 has focused extensively on its nebulous animal origins. Bats, civets, snakes, pangolins, and birds have all found themselves implicated as possible hosts for the novel virus. A multispecies exploration of COVID-19 appropriately highlights the profitable and violent commodity chains that connect mass consumption of wild animals to global ‘biodiversity hotspots.’ Yet, perversely, this move has also worked to erase reference to the peoples who actually coexist with these lifeforms. In this talk, we examine what is rendered invisible when ‘exotic’ animal origins are fetishized. Throughout Southeast Asia, the ancestral territories of indigenous peoples are the ultimate source of wildlife destined for consumption throughout the region. Drawing on examples from the Philippines and Malaysia, we explore how indigenous struggles for land and livelihood are central, not marginal, to understanding the emergence of a zoonotic pathogen like SARS-CoV-2. *About the speakers:* Will Smith is an Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University. He is an anthropologist and human geographer whose research critically explores environmental governance, indigenous livelihoods and climate change in the Philippines. He is the author of Mountains of Blame: Climate and Culpability in the Philippine Uplands (University of Washington Press, 2020). Noah Theriault, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Carnegie Mellon University, studies how global-scale forces shape the lives of rural and urban communities in the Philippines, with particular attention to the everyday practices through which those forces are enacted, contested, and potentially transformed. This includes a long-term study of indigeneity and biodiversity conservation in Palawan and more recently a political ecology of infrastructure in Manila. As a former conservation biologist, June Rubis, Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Sydney, has about twelve years experience with wildlife conservation fieldwork in both Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. She also has work experience on Indigenous land rights issues, working alongside with local activists in Malaysian Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah), on campaigns to resist mega-dam development in Borneo. She also studies decolonial Indigenous approaches to biodiversity conservation in Sarawak. Much of her approach to her work follows along the teachings of her late Bidayuh father. She holds both an MSc in Environmental Change and Management and a DPhil (PhD) in Geography & Environment, from the University of Oxford. *Watch the seminar:* Seminar will be available to stream on YouTube live. Access using the live link: <https://youtu.be/eJsN8Ym85y4>https://youtu.be/AD29NDsvwkc Date/time: Tuesday 9th June, 10am - 11:30am (Australian Eastern Standard Time, GMT+10) Q&A with the speaker to follow. To send questions/participate in the chat, you'll need to sign-in using a YouTube account <https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-comment-on-youtube?r=AU&IR=T>. If you have any questions, please send to ssn-info(a)deakin.edu.au The talk will also be recorded and available on the SSN Youtube Channel <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVYFQV_UFX9CLreqpNzanVA>. Did you miss our last seminar? Watch it here! <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtH1AbnJ7AFApbhh29fL5kqjNFdD_0eID>

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senior and postdoc fellowships in global internet governance
by Jan Aart Scholte 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Call for Research Fellowship Applications 2021/2022 (Global Internet Governance) Postdoctoral and Senior Researchers The Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21) invites applications for Research Fellowships with duration of 12 months starting between February and September 2021. Proposals are especially welcome regarding: (1) critique, justification and legitimacy in global cooperation; and (2) global cooperation and competing conceptions of world order. The fully funded fellowships are available to both senior and postdoctoral researchers across the humanities and social sciences. Prioritized global policy fields include climate, Internet, migration, peacebuilding. Deadline for applications is 1st June 2020. We are aware that this call comes at a time of high uncertainty around COVID-19. We are monitoring closely the evolving situation and hope that circumstances will allow the advertised fellowships to start as planned from February 2021 onwards. We therefore urge you to apply if you are interested but still uncertain about the practicability of the fellowship! The KHK/GCR21 The Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen is one of ten Käte Hamburger Kollegs sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Established in 2012, the Centre is an interdisciplinary and international learning community that seeks to enhance understanding of the possibilities and limits of global cooperation and to explore new options for global public policy. The working language at the Centre is English. In its second funding period (2018-2023), the Centre’s research and fellowships are organized around four broad themes: pathways and mechanisms of global cooperation; global cooperation and polycentric governance; critique, justification and legitimacy in global cooperation; and global cooperation and competing conceptions of world order. Empirical research on these themes focuses especially on the governance of climate change, the internet, migration, and peacebuilding. The Centre will issue thematic calls for application on an annual basis. Fellowships 2021-2022 For next year we invite fellowship applications from across the humanities and social sciences (including also psychology, law and economics) in relation to the second two main themes, as detailed below. We particularly encourage female researchers and scholars from the Global South to apply. Applications from scholars at risk are welcome. Benefits to Fellows * An intellectually stimulating and vibrant interdisciplinary learning community * Excellent infrastructure with fully equipped offices, library facilities, and administrative support (also with finding accommodation) * Funds to organize workshops (subject to approval, with preference especially to workshops that emerge from an interdisciplinary exchange with other researchers at the Centre) * Either a monthly stipend commensurate with experience or financing of a teaching replacement at the home institution Expectations from Fellows * A completed PhD * Personal research and publication in the Centre’s thematic areas * A contribution to the Centre’s own publications * Regular active participation in seminars and other Centre events * Collaboration with other fellows in interdisciplinary exchange * Work in residence at the Centre in Duisburg, Germany Themes 2021-2022 The Centre’s work in the period of 2021-2022 will focus on the themes ‘Critique, Justification and Legitimacy in Global Cooperation’ and ‘Global Cooperation and Competing Conceptions of World Order’, as described further below. We especially invite fellowship applications that address these themes. In addition, preference will be given to applications with an empirical focus on the governance of climate change, the internet, migration, and peacebuilding. How to Apply Applications (in English only) should include: * cover letter * concise research proposal (3-5 pages) * CV * list of publications * text of one relevant publication Please submit applications at http://www.gcr21.org/en/fellows/how-to-become-a-fellow/fellowships/. Deadline for receipt of applications is 1st June 2020. Please indicate in the cover letter your preferred start and end date of the fellowship. If you have any questions, please contact Matthias Schuler at <schuler(a)gcr21.uni-due.de>. Critique, Justification and Legitimacy in Global Cooperation Legitimacy – and its contestation – is a vital question for global cooperation. Legitimacy refers to the belief and perception that a governing force has rightful authority and exercises it appropriately. Legitimacy can be both normative (i.e. determined by moral judgement) and sociological (i.e. observed in political behaviour). Scholarship from various disciplines has usually examined legitimacy in relation to the state, but more recent scholarship understands legitimacy as a fragile, politicized, and contested phenomenon that involves a wider range of political forces, including multilateral institutions, private global governance, and transnational social movements. This processual notion of legitimacy – the interplay between critique and justification – leads to many conceptual, theoretical, and methodological challenges. It implies considering politicization processes and power relations across scales (at local, national and transnational levels), a broad spectrum of political actors in their complex relationships, and new forms of resistance against formal authorities (e.g. by whistleblowers, young climate activists, right-wing networks). Sites of resistance include – but are not limited to – civil society associations, social movements, and everyday practices of ordinary citizens. De-legitimation can come from ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ angles, from communitarians as well as cosmopolitans. If legitimacy is also created by civil society actors, new protest movements, and ‘ordinary citizens’, research questions emerge on how to conceptualize and study contested ‘legitimation work’ (Raymond Geuss) around multiple sites of global cooperation. We welcome projects that help us gain a better understanding of global cooperation and ‘politics of (de)legitimation’. Proposals are welcomed across a range of issue-areas, especially – though not limited to – climate change, Internet, migration, and peacebuilding. Questions for this research stream may include, though are not limited to:  Who are the protagonists who cooperate in legitimation and de-legitimation (or resistance) struggles (e.g. civil society organizations, social movements, indigenous groups)? How and why do these struggles emerge and develop? How does the global rise of populism play into such practices of cooperation?  What forms of trans-scalar cooperation can we distinguish in politics of (de-)legitimation (e.g. shared textual and visual narratives, performances, academic schools of thought)? For example, do young climate activists cooperate differently than right-wing networks?  How can we best study new protagonists and complex new forms of resistance against formal authorities, for instance as exercised/practiced by whistleblowers, feminist activists, artists, sportspeople and critical comedians?  How do certain concerns gain legitimacy as a “global” problem in need of “cooperation” (e.g. peace, climate change)? Global Cooperation and Competing Conceptions of World Order The broad question concerning competing conceptions of world order is a very traditional issue of global politics, which has operated on the basis of both systemic assumptions and more actor-focused concepts. Yet, under current polycentric conditions, these issues have taken many different forms and can be studied from a variety of perspectives, particularly with regard to their impact on global cooperation. Research projects in this stream are invited to explore the commonalities and differences between various conceptions of world order, as well as relationships between them in practices of global cooperation and non-cooperation. We welcome projects that help us to gain a better understanding of how different and often contested conceptions of world order shape, change or obstruct global cooperation. This includes abstract considerations about epistemological and anthropological foundations of world-order conceptions, as well as a focus on material conditions and repercussions. Also welcome are proposals that deepen understanding of populism and anti-global protest, the fight for global equality or the self-legitimation of organizations. Themes we are particularly interested in for the coming fellowship period include: How can we understand geopolitics (i.e. the strategic struggle for spheres of influence), beyond its form as classic theme of international politics? Can it result in new constellations of global cooperation? Or will we see a return of interstate conflict that seemed to have become obsolete? We invite research on perceptions, narratives and discourses to explore grand geopolitical/economic schemes in their conception in different regions or circles and also address new conflicting/cooperative areas. Can conceptions of world order based on the unity of humankind be imagined without relying on essentialist and simplifying anthropologies; and what are the implications of such ‘new cosmopolitanisms’ for global cooperation? What can be expected of approaches which substitute the focus on human rationality with the emphasis on other human capacities, such as empathy or awareness of common vulnerability? What is the role of different conceptions of time and historical directionality? How have conflicts between largely irreconcilable conceptions of world orders (and political agendas) impacted on global cooperation? For instance, while economic growth is seen as instrumental for improving the lives of people particularly in the Global South, a contrary position would hold that sustainable human life is only possible under conditions of reduced growth and consumption, respect for nature, clean energies etc. Can such guiding principles or even ideologies also pave the way for new ways in global cooperation, such as new alliances and forms or will these competing views generate future conflicts?

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JoAnne Yates on her new book
by Ilana Gershon 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Dear Colleagues, Michael Prentice interviews JoAnne Yates about her new book with Craig Murphy, Engineering Rules: Global Standard Setting Since 1880 -- the history of the organizations that set voluntary standards. Please check it out: https://campanthropology.org Best, Ilana

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Reminder: HIV and COVID-19 CFP
by Jaime García Iglesias 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

CFP for Culture, Health and Sexuality "Viral Times" Deadline for abstracts: June 16, 2020 We live in viral times: in just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused momentous alterations to our lives, society and culture. These changes—from the risk of infection to the stark highlighting of the inequality inherent to neoliberal systems—are of such depth that thinker Paul B. Preciado asked: “under what conditions and in which way would life be worth living?” Some current discussions by queer scholars about the social impacts of COVID-19 are informed by the cultural inheritance from the HIV and AIDS crisis that swept the world in 1980s and 1990s (and, both the virus and its cultural heritage remain endemic to many communities in the globe). However, at a broader level, many lessons from the AIDS crisis are being ignored, particularly those that highlight the importance of collective and community-based responses to the virus. At the same time, many political leaders have often excluded the humanities and social sciences, forgetting the essential role these subjects play in theorising through and about the HIV epidemic, and their key role of thinking about the conditions of the current situation. Instead, the “expert” advice spoken about by politicians has almost always only been limited to the medical sciences (which is usually presented as monolithic and incontrovertible) with little space provided for expert scholars in other areas to critically engage with the situation. This themed symposium in Culture, Health and Sexuality provides a space in which to ask: how might memory and culture of HIV inform our responses to COVID-19? In asking this question, we hope to foster critical engagements with the role of thinking about HIV and AIDS in the current culture of pandemic that address issues such as: - What lessons can HIV teach in developing or deploying critical and social public health? - What do the cultural responses to the virus look, sound and feel like across borders, groups and communities? What power dynamics does COVID-19 intersect with? - What are the material conditions of sexuality and health during an epidemic? - How might digital cultures mediate experiences of an epidemic? - Why and how is HIV an obvious precedent to COVID-19? - What are the risks and omissions of establishing a connection between HIV and COVID-19? - How might COVID-19 inform our memories of HIV? - What collective responses have we seen to COVID-19 and HIV and AIDS, and what can we learn by comparing them? - What does comparing COVID-19 and HIV and AIDS tell us about how lives matter? We call for contributions that critically engage with the relationship between HIV and COVID-19 and which address issues such as (but are not limited to): * Experiences of sexuality and intimacy in viral times, as well as the role of technology in developing intimacy, connection and embodiment * The material conditions of sex work and sexual health provision during an epidemic * The role of sex and sexuality: thinking about hook-ups and casual sociality during social distancing, the use and production of pornography, and the experiences of and need for physical and digital sex * Sexual health, prevention, risk and safer sex in viral times. * Agency, individuality, and victimhood, as well as notions of intimate and good/bad citizenship * Cultural memories and genealogies of COVID-19 and HIV: who remembers and who gets remembered * Responses to COVID-19 and HIV, particularly those from public health, politics and science * Media narratives of COVID-19, HIV and the AIDS crisis * Community and relational responses and activism * How stigma, prejudice and discrimination as well as inequalities have differentially influenced responses (particularly in times of scarcity and ‘war-time triage’), such as: socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, age, nationality, sexuality, or gender We remain open to other explorations that address the relationship between HIV and COVID-19 from culture, health and sexuality perspectives. Contributions are encouraged from a range of perspectives and disciplines, including but not limited to the social sciences and humanities. As we write this, we are painfully aware of the challenging emotional and labour conditions many scholars are currently experiencing, so we encourage collaborative, reflexive and creative pieces as well as writing that addresses these issues through autobiography, critical media and cultural studies, critical theory, queer theory and ethnography or lived experience. We hope the collection will bridge gaps between disciplines and fields to become an initial but enduring point of departure for longer-term conversations about these issues. Information about the submission process can be found here: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/viral-times/ Questions may be directed to jaime.garciaiglesias(a)manchester.ac.uk and maurice.nagington(a)manchester.ac.uk *Jaime Garcia-Iglesias* The University of Manchester Twitter <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=A_gZOKKCeUAotWHc_1i3ExusP…> ¦ Academia <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=Rgjwhvh-Nj7EqjH53AkxYFG26…> ¦ UoM <https://outlook.manchester.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=KcbFOtK5fr0gpIFVMAiLCtgC_…>

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Virtual Summer Speaker Series: Fake News & Disinformation and Its Spread
by Jeffery Joe Hemsley 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Virtual Summer Speaker Series: Fake News & Disinformation and Its Spread The Center for Computational and Data Science (CCDS) in the iSchool at Syracuse University invites you to join us for our Virtual Summer Speaker Series. We will host three presentations in June, July and August. The theme for the series will focus on: Fake News & Disinformation and Its Spread. Event registration is required and we will be using Zoom as our virtual platform. Please find below the details and we look forward to welcoming these thought-provoking speakers. We hope you will join us this summer! Wednesday, June 17, 2020 12:00-1:00PM EST Disinformation, Political Networks and Social Media in Brazil This talk will discuss research results about how Brazilian political networks spread and legitimate disinformation on social media, focusing on types, characteristics and discursive strategies. Raquel Recuero is a professor at Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL) and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil, and a researcher for the National Research Council (CNPq). She is also the lead of MIDIARS (Research Laboratory on Discourse, Social Media and Social Networks). Sign-up: https://forms.gle/w7WotyFTpWYpuB5B7 Thursday, July 9, 2020 1:00-2:00PM EST Black Trolls Matter and Other Conclusions from Analyzing State-Sponsored This talk will discuss research Dr. Freelon conducted with colleagues on the Twitter component of the Internet Research Agency's (IRA) disinformation campaign before, during, and after the 2016 US elections. In particular, Deen will discuss the distinct appeal of Black-presenting trolls, how IRA tweets found their way into mainstream news articles, the types of audiences that consumed IRA content, and the IRA's effects on Twitter users' political opinions. Deen Freelon is an associate professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill. These days he is mostly interested in disinformation, hyperpartisan communication, and computational methods. This research has been published in the following articles: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0894439320914853 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/1/243.short https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161219895215 https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/russian-disinformation-campai… Sign-up: https://forms.gle/iYJRdk71X7CnFLCL6 Wednesday, August 5, 2020 9:30-10:30AM EST Influencers, Misinformation, and 'Under the Radar' Strategies Drawing on research from various interconnected projects on influencer cultures and vigilante activism in Singapore and the Asia Pacific between 2011 and 2020, this talk provides a vernacular framework for thinking about the role of social media influencers, their involvement in circuits of (mis)information ecologies, and their innovative 'under the radar' strategies of communication, amplification, and suppression. Dr Crystal Abidin is a socio-cultural anthropologist of vernacular internet cultures, particularly influencer cultures, online visibility, and social media pop cultures especially in the Asia Pacific. She is Senior Research Fellow & ARC DECRA Fellow in Internet Studies and at the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University, and Affiliate Researcher with the Media Management and Transformation Centre at Jönköping University. Her books include Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online (2018), Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame (co-editor Brown, 2018), Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures (co-authors Leaver & Highfield, 2019), Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media (co-editors Warfield & Cambre, 2020), and tumblr: Curation, Creativity and Community. (co-authors Tiidenberg & Hendry, forthcoming). Crystal was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30, and recently received the International Communication Association Popular Communication Early Career Scholar Prize and Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship. Reach her at wishcrys.com. Sign-up: https://forms.gle/LitdTXTPk27iYnFw6 Should you have any questions or issues please direct to Lisette Child, Project Manager for the CCDS at ldchild(a)syr.edu<mailto:ldchild@syr.edu>, or Jeff Hemsley, co-director of the Center for Computational and Data Sciences, at jjhemsle(a)syr.edu.

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Making Public Presents the Urgent Publishing Toolkit and Publication
by Geert Lovink 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

What strategies are available to publishers in the cultural and research domains to conceive, produce, and position their contents in an urgent way? In the two-year research project Making Public (2018-2020) conducted by the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and partners, which has come to a close, methods and prototypes are developed to counter the contemporary speedy information sphere in new and different ways. Starting out from the observation that small-scale publishers often experience a trade-off between publishing under time pressure and upholding quality standards, we looked into other ways to conceive of timely publishing. Experiments with modular publishing, algorithmic recommendations, and digital remediation, have led to the development of hybrid content formats and new options for positioning publications with reading audiences. All of those are available in open access in the Urgent Publishing Toolkit. Central to the project is the concept of urgent publishing. Urgent publishing pertains both to timeliness and relevance. The final publication of the project, Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing offers an inquiry into urgency in publishing, next to presenting desk research and the experiments conducted by the three research groups. It develops a situated account of hybrid publishing, where authors, editors, publishers, designers, and readers operate together. The publication is available in open access, in both digital and print formats. The urgent publishing strategies that the prototypes and methods embody and that are described in detail in Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing focus on the following key notions: Relations between different content modules, that allow for multi-linear narratives and other (rhetorical) forms of presenting information. Trust in the network, both of publishers who can benefit from each other’s platforms and reach, and of readers who are interested in in-depth content. Remediation which allows publications to extend their afterlife and find readers by offering them ways to engage directly with materials. All information can be found on the website of the Institute of Network Cultures: Making Public website <https://networkcultures.org/makingpublic/> Urgent Publishing Toolkit <https://networkcultures.org/makingpublic/2020/05/14/urgent-publishing-toolk…> Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing <https://networkcultures.org/makingpublic/urgentpublishing/> Order your free paper copy here: https://networkcultures.org/publications/order-inc-publications/ <https://networkcultures.org/publications/order-inc-publications/> Collaborating partners: 1001 Publishers, Amateur Cities, Amsterdam University Press, ArtEZ University of the Arts, Hackers & Designers, Mind Design, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Open!, Open Set, Puntpixel, Studio BLT, Valiz, and Willem de Kooning Academy. The research was supported by Regieorgaan SIA (Taskforce for Applied Research).

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Twitter Collection and Analysis Toolkit seeks caring new owner
by Jacob Groshek 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Dear Colleagues and Friends, I hope this message finds everyone doing well and managing through this difficult time. I am posting to this list because, after about 7+ years, I am decommissioning a Digital Methods Initiative Twitter Collection and Analysis Toolkit (DMI-TCAT) installation that I oversee. More details on this system, developed by Erik Borra and Bernhard Rieder, are available on github here https://github.com/digitalmethodsinitiative/dmi-tcat While this is an open source platform that was generously made freely available by the developers (sincere and deep thanks to Erik and Bernhard), there can be costs involved with hosting and storage of the system and data. So while there are a variety of reasons for my decision, including a finite amount of research funds that I can dedicate each year, I am truly saddened to be pulling the plug especially because I am fully aware of the value this system carries and its important as a resource for academic research. To cut to the chase, it is roughly $370 per month to host and store this TCAT on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and right now, this TCAT install is at about 70% elastic capacity with more than *560 million tweets* collected over the last few years, on a wide variety of topics, many that relate to political and health communication. If anyone is interested to take over this system, or if there are questions out there, please reach out to me off list and I'm happy to discuss. If there are no takers, this data will no longer be maintained by me after June 30, and repositories of literally hundreds of millions of tweets on COVID-19 and other topics will be lost to the ether. Sorry for the long-ish message and thanks for your consideration. Best regards, Jacob -- Dr. Jacob Groshek Ross Beach Chair in Emerging Media Research and Associate Professor Kansas State University jacobgroshek.com | @jacobgroshek <https://twitter.com/jacobgroshek> | google scholar <https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=G1XXhccAAAAJ&hl=en> Honorary Associate Professor, Roskilde University <https://ruc.dk/en/department-communication-and-arts> Associate Director, CMCS @ <https://sites.bu.edu/cmcs/> Boston U <https://sites.bu.edu/cmcs/> | Founding Editor, *JoCTEC <http://www.joctec.org/>* Previously: Erasmus U <https://www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/research/ermecc/people/research-fellows> | NeSCoR <http://nescor.socsci.uva.nl/> | Boston Civic Media <http://bostoncivic.media/> | IAST <http://www.iast.fr/> +1-857-615-4709

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Facebook enabling violent extremists in the US: response?
by Mathieu.O'Neil 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Dear friends and colleagues in the Internet Research community: As the United States is struggling with a terrible pandemic, an economic crisis, and protests against police brutality and racism, it is extremely concerning to come across reports from credible sources showing that Facebook, out of a desire to placate unfounded criticism that it has a "left-wing bias" is allowing armed groups to explicitly organize for a civil war (aka "boogaloo") on its platform. These groups are not uniformly racist, though many overlap with far-right extremists. The following article leaves no doubt that this activity is mere "shitposting": Robert Evans and Jason Wilson, The Boogaloo Movement Is Not What You Think, Bellingcat, May 27, 2020. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/05/27/the-boogaloo-movement-is-not-wha… A recent report shows that Facebook knows exactly what it is doing: John Whitehouse, Bombshell report: Facebook has known that it is fomenting extremism for years -- and refuses to stop, MediaMatters, May 26, 2020. https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/bombshell-report-facebook-has-known-i… Clearly, what Facebook is doing is indefensible. It has to stop. What should be done? I know some people on this list work for Facebook. I know some people on this list are being funded, or applying to be funded by Facebook. I am sorry if this message places you in a difficult position. Everyone deals with things in their own way. For me, Facebook has been an important part of my life for a very long time. I love keeping in touch with people from all over the world and learning about their lives and their societies. Leaving it would mean perhaps losing touch with these people forever. But, for me, that's not enough to outweigh what the company is doing. I believe a strong message has to be sent now. I'm not very good at memes. But they work! My proposal is simple. We create a meme with a simple message, something like: FACEBOOK IS ENABLING VIOLENT HATE GROUPS MAKE FACEBOOK STOP NOW IF NOT: #BOYCOTTFACEBOOK We set up a resource page or Twitter account called #BOYCOTTFACEBOOK which outlines our point: stop doing this. Or we will leave. And we will urge advertisers and others to leave as well. We set up a petition to collect sigs (expensive) or we get "influencers" to circulate the meme (cheap). If someone has a better idea, please respond! I wrote "we" and "our" throughout because I sure hope others feel the way I do. But if I don't hear back a more effective proposal within 48 hours I will make my own (crap) meme and post it to Facebook alongside this text. I will download my content and withdraw from Facebook - I don't want to leave completely as this is my only bargaining chip so will "suspend" my account or whatever is possible. I will also create the Twitter account. Cheers, Mathieu PS. Some of you may have been harassed online by trolls for speaking out against racism and extremism. I am sorry. I never have. I don't want to be. If it happens, I will deal with it. We should not be cowed. PPS. Some research on social media in general and Facebook in particular (taken from Bellingcat article): Ines von Behr, Anaïs Reding, Charlie Edwards, Luke Gribbon (2013) Radicalisation in the digital era. The use of the internet in 15 cases of terrorism and extremism, RAND Europe. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR400/RR453/RAN… Séraphin Alava, Divina Frau-Meigs, Ghayda Hassan (2017) Youth and violent extremism on social media: mapping the research. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260382 Ryan Scrivens, Amarnath Amarasingam (2020) Haters Gonna "Like": Exploring Canadian Far-Right Extremism on Facebook. Digital Extremisms, pp 63-89. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30138-5_4 [UC Logo]<http://www.canberra.edu.au> [National Reconciliation Week 27 May - 3 June 2020]<https://www.canberra.edu.au/events/Home/Event/170650> [UC Facebook]<https://www.facebook.com/UniversityOfCanberra>[UC Twitter]<https://twitter.com/UniCanberra>[UC Instagram]<https://www.instagram.com/unicanberra/>[UC Linkedin]<https://au.linkedin.com/school/university-of-canberra/>[UC Youtube]<https://www.youtube.com/user/uniofcanberra> [University of Canberra] <http://www.canberra.edu.au> Australian Government Higher Education Registered Provider (CRICOS) #00212K The University of Canberra acknowledges the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the lands where Bruce Campus is situated. We wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of Canberra and the region. We also acknowledge all other First Nations Peoples on whose lands we gather. 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