Monday, May 11, 2015

Social media in government: 4 May to 11 May

Summary

The EU revealed its outline for the future Digital Single Market of Europe last week. The UK finished an election - and the Conservatives and their snooper charter are back in (but the EU may be out…) Facebook and Twitter badged voters in the UK to show who participated (and shame who didn’t.) 

Ghanaians are using celebrities and social media to protest dumsors. The President in Sierra Leone is under scrutiny by expats for punishing in-country social media users and protestors. The new (old) Nigerian President-elect is still getting his post-election social media footing while the NGO Access is calling on the UN and the African Union to stop Burundi’s social media shutdown. 

Turkey wants social media companies to pay taxes in Turkey and the anonymous whistleblower/ rumour mill Fuat Avni is at it again. Israel finished an election and the right wing party, led by a social media-savvy entrepreneur, has gained a lot more power in this coalition Government. Egypt has stolen/seized the assets of a popular football player; Libyans are doing a lot of promotion for their various Governments on social media; and Iranian smart filters did not block a shirtless (Canadian) Justin Bieber. But maybe that's a good thing, at least for the USA?

The recovery in Nepal is still being monitored and mapped in social media. A charismatic Chinese entrepreneur pulls a Zuckerberg and starts a Chinese meme. The Indian Prime Minister is on Weibo while his own country debates net neutrality and gardening on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Nauru is still blocking Facebook despite criticism from Australian politicians and refugee advocates. 

Canadians may get the tampon tax repealed, a Conservative Minister admits on Twitter. The USA plans to up its anti-IS social media game, maybe. And Chile has been watching some pretty awful DIY abortion videos. 

Then there are reports and tools…

United Nations

UN Women launched a campaign on Mother's Day based on popular Google searches such as "Women should..." The campaign using the hashtag #Womenshould to share images of women's faces with the Google search bar and the autosuggest endings - based on popular searches - of phrases like "women should..." or "women shouldn't..." or "women need.." The autosuggest endings demonstrate how far we have to go in gender equality.

Europe

The European Commission has revealed its plans for the Digital Single Market. In addition to reforms that seem to explore all areas of the digital economy, the EU plans to take a closer look at US-based tech companies like Google and Facebook (but we knew that already...) There does seem to be a tension, according to sources of The Financial Times, between maintaining the status quo (and using regulation to hamper US companies) and creating a truly fair tech market for all.

The overview in the press release: "The Digital Single Market Strategy adopted today includes a set of targeted actions to be delivered by the end of next year (see Annex). It is built on three pillars: (1) better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services across Europe; (2) creating the right conditions and a level playing field for digital networks and innovative services to flourish; (3) maximising the growth potential of the digital economy." Read the 16 priorities of the Single Market here.


Sources: @Ansip_EU, +The Financial Times Deutschland, +European Commission, @cg_williams

The United Kingdom

The UK general elections have finished (the Conservatives won - follow leader @David_Cameron for more), but not without a few final social media jabs. An infamous photo of Labour leader Ed Miliband eating a sandwich made it on to the front page of pro-Conservative English daily The Sun. While The Sun was making fun of Miliband, Labour supporters started the hashtag #JesuisEd and uploaded photos of themselves in funny food poses in support of Miliband.

Sources: +The Drum, +Mashable

Google Trends, which looks at what people are searching for on Google, noted that people located in Nigeria and Micronesia did more searches related to the UK elections than people located in the UK between March and May 2015. Of course, people in the UK might have been getting their election information from places other than Google search...
Sources: @blathnaidhealy, +Mashable

Facebook even added an "I'm a voter" button that allowed the 35 million UK Facebook netizens to announce whether or not they had voted to their friends (no need to say for whom.) At least one million users used the button during the election.



Not to be outdone, Twitter gave users who Tweeted the hashtag #IVoted a small hashflag to honour their participation in the election. Over 12,000 Tweets in the last few days have used the hashtag.
Sources: +The Independent, @_andrew_griffin, +The Telegraph

An interesting study out of New York University's Social Media and Political Participation (SMaPP or @SMaPP_NYU) looked at the correlation (and soon causality) of social media use and accurate knowledge of specific policies. On the issue of immigration, the more a person used social media - particularly political social media, the more likely they were to be able to guess the number of EU immigrants to the UK over a specific time period. However, the more UK netizens posted political stuff to Facebook and Twitter, the less accurate information they seemed to have. Curious? Read more about the correlations (causality still pending....)

Sources: @SMaPP_NYU, @kmmunger, +Washington Post

What does the new Conservative majority in the UK Parliament mean for social media? The Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May will now most likely have fewer problems pushing ahead with legislation that  forces companies to retain online data, including social media activity, calls, and text messages, for 12 months. There is also pressure from the Conservative party to build a backdoor for Governments (and by extension hackers...) into online encryption technology.

Sources: +TechCrunch, @riptari

Of course the UK is an essential member (with many special exceptions) of the EU. In the midst of the Digital Single Market excitement, the European Commission President did congratulate the new UK leader on Twitter.
The Indian Prime Minister also congratulated Prime Minister Cameron on Twitter, echoing some Hindi that Cameron used to reach out to Hindi-speaking UK voters.
Once the elections were decided, the protests began. Concerns over the Government's planned austerity measures, which include a pledge to cut a further £12 billion from welfare expenditure, lured anti-Conservative protestors to the street in a #londonprotest. During the protest, a War Memorial was defaced with an anti-Conservative slur and elsewhere four police officers, a police staff member, and a number of protesters were injured when a small scuffle broke out. Chief Superintendent Gerry Campbell of the Metropolitan Police noted, however, that "The vast majority of those protesting did so peacefully ...[only] a small minority were intent on causing disorder and engaged in violence." Yet the ire around the war memorial vandalism spurred an online debate about what is worth getting angry over: defacing a national monument or cutting benefits to veterans?
Sources: +The Independent, @DougieBolton

Africa

Ghana

Celebrities in Ghana have joined the online political protest that says #DumsorMustStop. "Dumsor" is the street name in Ghana for power outages. Dumsors have increased of late, and the Ghanaian opposition leaders say that the dumsors are a deliberate effort by the current Government to hurt opposition businesses and leaders. Others note that the Government has to pay a debt to Nigeria in order to get more consistent power delivered. Whatever the cause, the current Government is largely being blamed and celebrities and citizens are hosting online and offline campaigns to get the dumsors to just stop.
Sources: +Ghana web

Sierra Leone

President Ernest Koroma in Sierra Leone has been accused by activists on social media - including Amnesty International - of using the Ebola crisis to limit freedom of speech and assembly. Inside Sierra Leone, sentiment suggests that traditional media has been compromised by the Government, so many have turned to social networks to voice their frustration and to find information about what is going on. Protestors have been arrested, as have members of the opposition party and even a senior officer of the Sierra Leone Human Rights Commission. Protests in the US and the UK against Koroma's actions have been posted to public social media outlets by citizens of Sierra Leone that live abroad. Netizens say that President Koroma has misappropriated funds earmarked to help with the Ebola crisis, jailed and intimidated protesters inside Sierra Leone, and framed his Vice-President Samuel Sam-Sumana, whom Koroma allegedly fired for fraud. “Last month a man was charged with insulting the President after having forwarded a Whatsapp message he did not author,” Amnesty International cited in a press release.




Sources: +CIO, @idg_news, The Sierra Leone Telegraph

Nigeria 

The Nigerian election is over and after all the memes, the hashtag (#Nigeriadecides) and other social media activity that spurred debate and tracked election activities looking for fraud, the new (old) Nigerian leader General Mohammadu Buhari is still under social media scrutiny. Known for his hard-line tactics and repression as Nigeria's military ruler from 1983 to 1985, how will Buhari, whose campaign was lauded as more social media savvy than his opponent's, continue his online engagement? President-elect Buhari recently tried to restrict Africa Independent Television (AIT) from covering his his activities following a documentary that AIT claims was factually correct but which did not show the former Dictator-turned-democratically-elected leader in a very flattering light. Nigerian Twitter was not kind to Buhari's perceived ban on AIT - which is openly perceived by many in Nigeria as a biased news channel, and the Buhari team quickly reacted, explaining that it was not technically a ban and clarifying that Buhari will follow the Constitution and not restrict freedom of the press.


Sources: @paulomoruyi1, @SaharaReporters

Burundi

"Access, a global human rights group, has appealed to the United Nations and the African Union to intervene in the Burundian government's decision to block mobile social media amid protests aimed at stopping President Pierre Nkurunziza's third-term bid. In a letter written to UN and AU, Access underscores the importance of the internet to realizing human rights, and explains how shutdowns often enable shocking human rights violations."




Sources: Lilian Mutegi of @allafrica

South Africa

The South African Democratic Alliance party held its sixth Federal Congress on 9 and 10 May 2015. Party members online and off followed discussions using the hashtag #DACongress, which trended worldwide. The Congress was also live-streamed on YouTube. Helen Zille (@helenzille), the former leader of the DA and a fierce critic of current South African President Jacob Zuma, officially stepped down.

Middle East

Turkey

“There are many social media and internet companies which earn money in almost all countries, but they do not pay taxes there, but only where they are based. We need to solve this problem, as any economic activity should be taxed anywhere in the world,” Turksih Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek (@memetsimsek) said at a G20 event in Istanbul on May 7th. Şimşek praised the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. BEPS aims "to tackle aggressive practices that erode the tax base of companies and artificially shift profits to low or no-tax jurisdictions."
Sources: +Hurriyet.com.tr, @memetsimsek

The anonymous social media-based whistle blower Fuat Avni (@fuatavni_f or @FuatAvniEng) says that AK Party Deputy Chair Süleyman Soylu and President Erdoğan’s Chief Adviser Mustafa Varank are overhauling their "troll army." The pro-Government trolls have not been effective enough, so a new office will be created to further Turkey's current Government's efforts to improve its image on social media. The new office, ‘The New Turkey Digital Office,’ will contain 180 heavily vetted professionals sworn to secrecy. “Just as the president holds political rallies with state funds,” wrote Avni, “His party is paying the salaries of thousands of AK Trolls from the treasury.”

Sources: +fuat avni, +Bgn News

Israel

Late last Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) cobbled together a coalition that rests on one tenuous vote. (He has 61 seats in Parliament, the bare minimum for a coalition in the Israeli Parliament of 120 seats.) How? He included the controversial right-wing Jewish Home party. Opposition party leader Zionist Union's Isaac Herzog (@HerzogMK) blasted the new coalition in social media, calling it a "government without responsibility" and a "government of national failure" on Twitter. The Home party is led by an American-Israeli entrepreneur, Naftali Bennett (@naftalibennett, @Naftali_Bennett) who is frequently cited for his social media savvy and plan for Israel to annex around 60 percent of the West Bank and to grant the Palestinians limited autonomy in the remaining territory.


The negotiations are over. The campaigns have ended.Now we go back to work.- For you.
Posted by Naftali Bennett on Thursday, May 7, 2015

Sources: +CNN, +Yahoo News

Libya

Militants loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government claimed via Wednesday that they had shot down a rival war plane. They posted images to social media to back up their purported victory.
Sources: +Reuters, @UlfLaessing, @AhmedElumami, @ferasbosalum

Later this week, the Libyan municipalities of Zintan and Misrata agreed to a prisoner exchange which they also documented via social media.
+Libya Herald

Egypt

Many on Egyptian social media are furious with their Government. Egyptian authorities seized the assets of four-time African Player of the Year and former Egyptian national team all star Mohamed Aboutrika. The football superstar publicly supported and allegedly contributed to the campaign of 2012 Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, temporarily legal in 2012 after former Egyptian President Morsi was forced to step down during the so-called Arab Spring, is currently (and has often been) banned by the Egyptian Government. Currently the Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist organisation. Aboutrika, however, is well-loved throughout Egypt not only for his athletic skill but also for his frequent humanitarian work.
Translation: “Anyway, Aboutrika is more important than [Egyptian President] Sisi.”

Sources: @NutmegRadio, +Fusion

Iran

Iran's Government is having issues with its smart filtering. Normally, Iran filters the Internet to ensure that users can connect with friends but will not have access to social media accounts deemed too sexual for the Iranian audience. However, recent encryption (meaning users can access content without sharing what they are accessing with any other user) by social networks like Instagram have led to holes in the Iranian filtering. Recently, an instagram image of Justin Bieber topless made its way through the filters and into mainstream Iranian social media. Iranian censors, among other Government officials, were incensed. Instagram does seem to have more and more Iranians joining the site recently, and Instagram officials plan to roll out the encryption technology across the network.

Sources: +Guardian Liberty Voice 

 In a blog post for The Hill, a policy-oriented website based in Washington DC, two writers make the case for greater US outreach to the Iranian public: "Iran is unique in the Middle East, in that it maintains a sizable young, urban and highly educated population that has favorable views towards America.  A survey conducted in 2012 by Israeli political strategist Yuval Porat, shows that the Iranian people tend to hold liberal and democratic values. Iran also exhibits a high rate of social media and telecommunication users despite government attempts to block them. Figures from Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance show that 9.5 million Iranians use the popular mobile telecommunications application, Viber. Likewise, 8.5 million Iranians are using Facebook through the use of virtual private network technology to circumvent government censorship." As an example, the authors cite the case of Iranians taking selfies with images of US President Obama after the breakthroughs in nuclear negotiations last month.

 Sources: @hannahvolmar, @mghorban

Asia

Nepal

The support effort following the terrible Nepal earthquake continues both online and off. Quake volunteers are building on a project started by the non-profit Kathmandu Living Labs. The founder, Nama Budhathoki, completed a phD in open data and social media in the USA several years ago. Realising after the Haiti earthquake that his own community was vulnerable to such a tragedy and - worse - more poorly mapped than Haiti, Budhathoki began mapping Nepal. To do so, he used Open Street Map, the Wikipedia of maps. Open Street Map lets anyone map different areas. Budhathoki uses more seasoned map experts to approve the maps submitted by volunteers.
Needless to say KLL's maps, overlaid with requests for help and specific supplies submitted to the Ushahidi platform, have allowed his team to accurately map not only where help is needed but exactly what sort of help is needed (specific medications, water, tents, rice...) This crisis mapping is helping volunteers and NGOs on the ground better organise rescues and related supplies. Reports can be submitted and reviewed here.


Sources: @sairasy

China

CEO Lei Jun of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched the company's first product for the international market in New Delhi two weeks ago. In an echo of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaking reportedly terrible Chinese at a Q&A session at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Lei spoke English. He tried to raise enthusiasm amongst the crowd by shouting "Are you okay?" several times and then continued in passable but not brilliant English. His attempt may have been appreciated by English-speakers outside of China, but the Chinese themselves mocked him mercilessly, initiating a meme called "Are you okay?" in Chinese social media. (Chinese speakers shared this meme with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he joined Weibo not long after. Modi, perhaps prudently, stayed out of it.)



Sources: +Quartz,  @evadou, +Wall Street Journal

There are only five world leaders on Weibo, the Chinese social network similar to Twitter: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Israeli President Shimon Peres, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Cameron is the most followed, though he has only posted 34 times.

Modi joined Weibo only this month. Reaction so far has been mixed. Many Chinese welcomed Modi to Weibo, but the more popular interactions with Modi's account on Weibo asked him to "return" South Tibet. The Chinese claim that Arunachal Pradesh - what they call South Tibet - belongs to them, a claim that India denies. Many of Modi's first replies on Weibo demanded that he give the disputed territory back to China.


Sources: +BBC News, @tessa_wong, @ForeignPolicy, @TeaLeafNation, @BethanyAllenEbr


Just two weeks ago on a Thursday, Chinese authorities from the transport, public security and industry and commerce bureaus in the city of Guangzhou raided Uber’s local office. The raid followed claims that Uber is organising an illegal taxi service in Guangzhou. Uber and rival transportation and social network applications like home-grown Chinese Kuaidi and Didi are increasingly popular in China. The apps offer cheaper, more socially interactive options to the traditional Chinese taxi services, which are essentially government monopolies. However, raids like this one suggest that the apps are not popular with Chinese Government officials. 
Sources: @SCMP_News

India

In response to a plea, the Delhi High Court last Thursday asked Facebook to specify what sort of intellectual property rights contract users enter into when sharing content on Facebook. “It appears there are certain settings by which a user of social media can opt to restrict the use of intellectual property rights (IPR). It also appears there can be grant of IPR licence for the content uploaded,” a Bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said. “Is the government aware of it?” By giving Facebook a "royalty-free" licence to share such content for free, “it was akin to (giving) state largesse.” The court responded, “We have nothing to do with Facebook. You (FB) have your terms and conditions to operate an account. It is the government which has to take a conscious decision. We are only on whether government has given away the licence for the Facebook content." The former BJP leader K N Govindacharya filed the original plea and contends that government departments like Delhi Police and Indian Railways are not entitled to create accounts on social networking sites.

Sources: +The Hindu, +The Financial Express

“The government has not decided to get servers of popular social networking sites, like hike, Facebook, Twitter etc established within the country,” Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) explained in a written reply to a question from the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha. The Minister explained that Indian authorities are in regular contact with relevant stakeholders in social media over security concerns.

Sources: +tech2

At a meeting of Consultative Committee of Information and Broadcasting Ministry to discuss the issue of 'Harnessing role of Social Media' this past week, India's I&B Minister Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) said, "The digital mode had become an effective medium to communicate to the wide audience while at the same time it offered opportunities to innovate." Jaitley cited India's "Talkathons" which allow Internet users to interact with so-called eminent persons on Twitter or Facebook while answers are provided live on Youtube. He also discussed plans to digitise and promote the 100 volumes of Mahatma Gandhi on social media. After the meeting, an official statement was released and noted, "It was emphasised that efforts needed to be taken to promote the reach of social media to those segments which at times suffered due to lack of technological access. It was also suggested that measures need to be taken to facilitate information flow to the young target audience and institutions in rural areas.”

Jaitley also announced the release of the Mobile Application of DD News (called the Doordarshan App), E-version of India 2015 and Bharat 2015 and E-book of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on its initiatives and achievements. DD News is, Jaitley said, to provide Indians with objective facts and information rather than "anchor-driven" news, news that is selected and curated by specific news anchors. "One can watch news updates and top videos on one's mobile phone. Besides main news, DD News has three sports & two business bulletins daily along many current affairs programmes. A touch on your phone and one can watch many Special shows on health, youth issues, cinema, art & culture, flagships schemes," according to Niti News.

Sources: +NitiCentral, @arunjaitley

Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) said he saved his own urine and asked his gardener to use the urine to water his plants. Gadkari explained that this helped his plants grow more. Indian social media has spent the last few days making jokes about the Minister's unexpected public statement.
Sources: +Huffington Post Politics

Indians are still debating net neutrality. Facebook's Internet.org (non-profit promoting free mobile services) is partnering with Reliance (for-profit mobile operator) to let consumers access more mobile applications for free. (The idea is that after accessing the free apps, consumers will want the rest of the Internet and will pay the operator for it.) Then there is Airtel Zero which will give consumers free access to services that developers must pay the operator to offer. Srini Gopalan, director of consumer business at Bharti Airtel, said, “The initiative is an open non-discriminatory platform: a win-win for developers,” Gopalan said, explaining that the costs will be fixed for partners of all sizes. “Our goal is to help developers reduce their cash burn, it is not a walled garden.” However, critics disagree, claiming that big companies with deep pockets are turning the online world into an oligarchy under the guise of net neutrality. Indians involved in the debate have been circulating petitions and Google documents explaining what net neutrality is and could be in their country.



Worth reading - how does Prime Minister Modi run his incredibly successful online outreach? He has a data-driven team of four dedicated to his social media engagement plus thousands of online "volunteers."  Read more here.

Nauru

Advocates for refugees housed on Nauru have again expressed concern over the island nation's recent ban on Facebook. Refugees, already isolated in camps on Nauru, frequently used Facebook to communicate with family and friends and now are further isolated. (This blog originally covered the ban last week.) 
Officially, the Government's reason for the ban is the restriction of "internet sites that show pornography, particularly those featuring children." However, Australian opposition Member of Parliament Matthew Batsiua told Pacific Beat, "The real agenda here is curbing the rights of people to access social media...[the Government has cut off social media activity after] shutting out members of the opposition, having an ineffective parliament where basically there's no scrutiny or debate on policies and activities..." Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition agreed and he told ABC, "The ability to arrest ... assemblies three or greater now extends to public areas and that effectively means inside the refugee compounds itself..[the Nauru Government is] not far short of being a dictatorship."

Sources: +Business Insider UK, @NatashaBertrand

Australia

A Perth-based Australian praised the IS-inspired Texas shooting in which both shooters were killed and a security guard was wounded. The Australian, who goes by the handle @AusWitnessAU on Twitter, identified the Texas event and Tweeted, "Kuffar [unbelievers] are holding a large 'Draw Muhammed (PBUH) event in Garland, Texas on May 3rd. Please spread to US brothers" prior to the event. After the event, he followed up with "I support what our mujahideen in Texas did, but I take no responsibility for it. Allah commanded them to attack, not me."  The activity has been used by the media to point out how geography offers no barrier to IS connection online. The man could also face prosecution under the Abbott government's new laws against advocating terrorism.

Sources: @davidwroe, 

The CeBIT Australia technology fair finished up Thursday at Sydney’s Olympic Park. NSW Finance Minister Dominic Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) said “Research shows that they are unattached to organised religion, unaffiliated with political parties, overburdened by debt and distrustful of institutions. They are sceptical of big government, and more likely to be social entrepreneurs than public servants. By 2025, just ten years from now, they will make up almost 75 per cent of the workforce, a shift I believe that will have profound implications for government and the use of technology…. the most defining characteristic of millennials [is] that they [are] digital natives, the first generation younger than the internet itself, mobile dominant, always connected, and prolific users of social media.” Perrottet finished his speech by claiming that, while at the moment behind, Australia would eventually move towards a “Netflix version of government.”
+CeBIT Australia

North America

Canada

One of the election issues this year in Canada is a tax on feminine hygiene products - dubbed the "tampon tax." The Minister of Labour & Minister of Status of Women Dr. Kellie Leitch (@KellieLeitch) joined the #notaxontampons social media movement to let voters know her Government plans to help get rid of the tax. And Leitch let everyone know first via social media:



The 42nd general Federal election in Canada is scheduled for October 19th, 2015. Parties are already gearing up online and off. Follow their leaders on Twitter here and check out real-time Tweets below.


USA

In Texas last week two gunmen attempted to target an event displaying cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. One of the gunmen had ties to ISIS recruiters on Twitter and mentioned he was "interested in the [Texas] event" on Twitter. Both gunmen were killed after wounding a security guard. ISIS recruiters online have since used the incident to brag about other US-based operatives that they can activate via social media.

Sources: +BBC News, @PeteWilliamsNBC

At a Thursday hearing called “Jihad 2.0,” US Senators looked into funding an online counter-terrorist narrative. Sen. Cory Booker (@CoryBooker), a Democrat from New Jersey, said “crude is a generous statement” when describing how the US Government uses social media to respond to terrorists' use of the medium. “I was surprised if not stunned at how we are approaching our messaging and our counter-messaging...There are easy tactics [to] get more voice and virality to messaging that we are not using as a government,” Sen. Booker said. “Look at their fancy memes compared to what we are not doing.” Senator Booker passed around his iPad to let others review the slick and attractive social media outreach of terrorists compared to the USA's "Think again, turn away" social media campaign to combat online recruitment of terrorists. Mubin Shaikh, a Canadian security services expert, told US Congress members that current outreach misses the target audience. “If you want to fight back against recruitment of 15-year-old kids, you need to work with 15-year-old kids…My approach is to show how wrong they are and to criticize and delegitimize them from the very Islamic sources that they misquote and mutilate.  I submit to you it is not as hard as some may suggest. We already have talent that just need the direction and guidance in order to get it going.”
Other Senators agreed, and one noted legislation is being drafted to alter the current approach.

Sources: @hshaban, +BuzzFeed, @jseldin

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York said the National Security Agency (NSA) programme that sweeps up logs of Americans' phone calls is illegal and "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized" under the USA Patriot Act. "The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for the three-judge panel. "The sheer volume of information sought is staggering...[extending to]...every record that exists, and indeed to records that do not yet exist....[the case brings up] one of the most difficult issues in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence: the extent to which modern technology alters our traditional expectations of privacy....If the government is correct, it could use (the law) to collect and store in bulk any other existing metadata available anywhere in the private sector, including metadata associated with financial records, medical records, and electronic communications (including e‐mail and social media information) relating to all Americans." Since Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA's programme two years ago, a Washington federal judge has suggested the programme is un-Constitutional and two additional federal appeals courts are reviewing it. The Act that permits the programme, the Patriot Act, is up for renewal in the US Congress early next month.

Sources: +USA TODAY, @bradheath, @richardjwolf

One of the standout speakers in the recent conference on social media and state and local government in the USA was Rosetta Carrington Lue, who oversees social media strategy and outreach for the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Lue talked about her small team (3 people), and the need for an editorial calendar, steady engagement, clear guidelines, weekly meetings, and scheduled social media posts. Lue was one of the first city officials to make use of the Twitter live-stream application Meerkat. She live-streamed the Mayor's press conferences via the app.

Sources: +Ricky Ribeiro, +StateTech Magazine

Another trending local social media story is the plan to turn the city of Sacramento's disorganised megabytes of city administration into a user-friendly database for advocates. "It's like C-SPAN, Google, and Facebook for California politics all rolled into one...And the name of this movement and the new platform for civic engagement is called: Digital Democracy." writes Lt Governor of California Gavin Newsom and Sam Blakeslee, Founding Director, Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy at California Polytechnic State University.

Sources: @samblakeslee, @GavinNewsom, +Huffington Post Politics

Michigan-county assistant prosecutor Teana Walsh resigned on May 1 after posting the following about the Baltimore riots to her Facebook page: “So i am watching the news in Baltimore and see large swarms of people throwing bricks etc at police who are fleeing from their assaults… 15 in hospital already. Solution. Shoot ’em. Period. End of discussion. I don’t care what causes the protestors to turn violent.. what the “they did it because” reason is… no way is this acceptable. Flipping disgusting.” — Teana Walsh, Facebook post. While the post was on her personal page, the sentiment and reach of the post was such that her professional work was compromised.

Sources: David Yee, @ivn

Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton is playing defense against the negative book "Clinton Cash." The push-back include a lot of #mythbuster social media activity to dispute the book's claims. The book looks at foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Sources: @maggieNYT

Finally, last week on Tuesday erstwhile Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee), a former Baptist pastor favoured by Christian Conservatives in the Republican Party, joined the race for the Republican nomination for US President. Huckabee is trying to appeal to older, conservative voters and has promised, among other things, to abolish the US tax collecting institution, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS.)


If you want to keep up with the USA Presidential candidates on Twitter, you can subscribe to this 2016 Presidential Twitter list or check out the Tweets below.



Alternatively, you can follow this Facebook list.

Barbados

Barbados will host the Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum (CarPIF), from May 27th -28th to further discuss plans for national Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) throughout the Caribbean. The goal of IXPs would be to provide faster and more easily accessible internet to Caribbean communities.

Sources: +Russell Williams

South America

Chile

In Chile, abortion at any time is illegal. However, a number of (fake) "do-it-yourself" abortion tutorials have been making the rounds on social media. The videos are part of an organisation's attempt to change the laws in the largely-Catholic country by showing the extremes to which some women will go to get an abortion despite the national ban.

Sources: +BBC Trending, @AMTomchak,

Tools

ArchiveSocial

Like several other tools, ArchiveSocial lets users save their social media posts. Yet ArchiveSocial focuses specifically on Government clients in North America, helping them maintain records of all their social media interactions to fulfil government records regulations. The website notes:
  • Get started in less than 2 minutes with nothing to install
  • Automatically comply with state and federal records laws
  • Maintain 100% authentic, legally-sound social media records
  • Instantly search, filter, and produce public records as requested

Digital Democracy

Another trending local social media story is the plan to turn the city of Sacramento's disorganised megabytes of city administration into a user-friendly database for advocates. "It's like C-SPAN, Google, and Facebook for California politics all rolled into one...And the name of this movement and the new platform for civic engagement is called: Digital Democracy." writes Lt Governor of California Gavin Newsom and Sam Blakeslee, Founding Director, Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy at California Polytechnic State University.

Sources: @samblakeslee, @GavinNewsom, +Huffington Post Politics

Reports

Twiplomacy Study 2015: How World Leaders Connect on Twitter

As mentioned last week, it bears repeating that this recent report is a must-read. They also provide their data for you to download and repackage.
This version of the annual report, as the press release notes, "analysed 669 government accounts in 166 countries and revealed that 86% percent of all 193 United Nations (UN) governments have a presence on Twitter. One hundred and seventy-two heads of state and government have personal Twitter accounts and only 27 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia-Pacific, do not have any Twitter presence."

Government 2.0 from the American Society for Public Administration (PDF)

Ines Mergel (@InesMergel) of Syracuse University has suggested a very simple, three-part implementation strategy when the public administration uses social media: a push strategy, a pull strategy, and - the least observable - a networking strategy. She emphasis that social media is a bottom-up media, and it is essential to let the people lead when it comes to memes and trends. She notes:
  • Get people on board and don't put the use and content creation on the shoulders of one-person IT shop - socialise your whole strategy; 
  • Social media does not replace existing channels of communication; 
  • Design your strategy around the mission you want to achieve and the audiences you want to reach; 
  • Reach has not yet proven its value and the measurement of the outcome is difficult. 
 In the same issue, Mergel's colleagues outline the following rules:
  1.  Only use social media if you can identify a tangible mission-related reason for using it. Don't just adopt it because it is trendy. 
  2. Unlike a business or nonprofit, every government agency has the duty of accountability in a democracy. 
  3. Social media works only if the agency is committed to its maintenance and operation. 
  4. Beware of the temptation of population explosion. 
  5. Integrate with the agency's existing external communication activities. 
  6. Just like other aspects of public administration that engage public, remember the Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) principle. 
  7. While social media tends to be seen as two-way communications, it can also be used for one-way communication, but generally only for high-profile office holders, such as a mayor. 
  8.  One of the strengths of social media is public outreach. 
  9. There's a need to create 'clear use' guidelines for staff.

Read the whole issue here.


And, as always, for more, follow @Linda_Margaret on Twitter or subscribe for weekly updates in your email (remember, if you do so, to check your spam for the email.)



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