Tom Daley

Social Networking:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183494/Tom-Daleys-Twitter-troll-Reece-Messer-lives-benefits-bedsit-father-11-children.html 
The link above provides information about Tom Daley's experiences online with 'Twitter Trolls'.
After Tom unfortunately missed out on a medal during the London 2012 olympics for synchronised diving with Peter Waterfield, he was criticised/ confronted by twitter trolls online.
The young boy of whom was a similar age to Tom tweeted him saying "You let your dad down I hope you know that." Many of the public reacted to this tweet and classed it as a form of cyber bullying. This is because the previous year, Tom's dad Rob unfortunately died of brain cancer. Due to this, the comment made was insensitive and regarded as a form of bullying. Tom also reacted to the tweet and responded by stating "After giving it my all..you get idiots sending me this". This made Tom's followers aware of this and they therefore began giving their support.
The boy who tweeted this was consequently arrested on "suspicion of malicious communication".

'Coming Out' Video:
December 2nd 2013: Tom Daley came out as bisexual to his 2.4 million Twitter followers through a 5 minute video that he uploaded to YouTube. He also then posted the link on his Twitter account, making sure that it would be noticed by the majority. The video has currently reached 8,659,993 views on YouTube and 163,023 users have 'liked' the video. It also appears on the YouTube homepage under the title of 'Popular Now'.
Tom received mostly support from his fan base/ the public, whereas on the other hand some may argue why it has been made to be such a big thing as an individuals sexuality should not matter and that instead we should all focus on his talent at diving. However, big news institutions such as the Daily Mail and the Metro produced articles about the video almost instantly.
It could be argued that it was a good idea for Tom to create the video as he stated himself that he wanted his fans to hear from him himself, rather than have his words twisted within an interview. However, it could be argued that as he is an international sportsman coming out so publicly could affect where he competes such as The Middle East who do not support the gay community. It could also be argued that due to our interest in celebrity culture, coming out so publicly could have a negative impact.

Are Internet Institutions such as Google doing enough to combat illicit use of the Internet?

Examples:
Article on the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/18/uk-us-dark-web-online-child-abuse-internet

Information from the article:
Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt has announced that a strong team of 200 people have ‘cleaned up’ Google Search to target 100,000 terms that can be used to locate child sexual abuse images.  The company is now also showing warnings at the top of its search results for 13,000 queries.
YouTube has now created new technology, which identifies videos made my pedophiles. Google and Microsoft have now been working together in attempt of identifying child abuse images.
A transatlantic taskforce will now identify ways of targeting criminals/ pedophiles that use secret encrypted networks to distribute images of abuse.

Quote from Google’s executive chairman: "We've listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem. We've fine-tuned Google search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results."

Quote from Joanna Shields (Chief executive of London technology investment agency, Tech City, who previously worked for Google and Facebook): "It's vital that governments and industry work together to eradicate child abuse content from the internet, and that we mobilise the best and brightest in the technology industry to come up with innovative solutions."

BBC Article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24980765

100,000 search terms will now return no results that find illegal material and will trigger warnings that child abuse imagery is illegal.
David Cameron is responsible for welcoming the move. The National Crime Agency director said that tests show that the changes are working. Therefore, David Cameron argues that the next stage is to tackle the “dark web” where people share images online without making them publicly available. The image to the left shows what now comes up when key words are now typed into Google.

Microsoft’s General Manager: "It will be much harder to find that content on both Bing and Google. We are blocking content, removing content and helping people to find the right content or also sources of help should they need that,"

I think that Internet Institutions such as Google, Microsoft and Bing are doing a good job at attempting to combat illicit use of the Internet as they have blocked and removed various websites that contain forms of sexual child abuse. This has evidently had a positive impact overall as the NCA state that tests show that the changes are working and therefore it is harder for individuals to access illegal content through these search engines. However, I feel that the impact is not all beneficial because of the “dark web” where people share images and material online yet can keep their identities hidden. Overall I feel that Internet Institutions are making an effective decision through removing content, however there is still room for improvement.  

Essay Preparation

'We Media will make the world a more democratic place' Discuss
Examples:
http://syriangirlpartisan.blogspot.co.uk/ 

The Arab Spring: Revolution 2.0

Quotes from Wael Ghonim:

'The Internet will change politics in Egypt'

'Revolution 2.0 is a bold, moving story of the and the hope, courage and fearlessness it takes to start a revolution' 

'I thought that my anonymity was my power' 

'The power of the people is greater than the people in power'

'We used all available tools in order to communicate, collaborate and agree on a date, time, and location for the start of the revolution'

'His release in February 8th was seen as a key moment in the revolution'

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2013/04/arabspring/