Social Media - aiding and abetting

Good thinking, Whitewavemark2. I hope you’re right. 🤞

I’m on several Birmingham/Black Country Facebook pages and have spent years being horrified by people constantly posting about how much better it was in the old days and how it’s all the fault of immigrants ( no matter what the subject matter people always seemed to turn it round to having a dig at foreigners). I’ve unfollowed a couple of them but was heartened yesterday that the person who set up one such site has said that no racism if any kind will be allowed. Even more heartened by the fact that so many people thanked him for it. It was only a small thing but it really gave me hope.

I'm glad I'm not on anything else apart from GN and MN and both can eat into time when I could be doing something more productive. X, Tic Toc and similar sites sound like the Wild West. Social media can certainly be a Pandora's Box considering the number of toxic ills that fly out of them, certainly at times like this.

Why do people keep saying illegal immigration is racial? It is not, it's numbers and knowing who we have in this country. Please don't keep twisting words.
These rioters are just disgusting, government know who they are and hopefully now they are dealt with. It's a pity we have to pay for them. Prison is expensive and they learn nothing from it, it just removes them society for a while,but what's the alternative? Social media has a lot to answer for it can't be that difficult to block them. My grandchildren are so wary now about where they go and not alone, they and the rest of us shouldn't feel this way.

Allsorts who /what are your grandchildren wary of?

Allsorts, perhaps you would be better posting on a thread which deals with your concerns? This thread clearly states its purpose.
It is very interesting that various police forces have used photos from social media to help track down individuals. One man already has been arrested regarding incitement. A Tory councillor's wife has deleted a truly horrible post on twitter and published a grovelling apology, but I suspect its too late for that. Social media has a huge part to play in causing unrest, but now it is helping to clear up the mess.

Why do people keep saying illegal immigration is racial? It is not, it's numbers and knowing who we have in this country. Please don't keep twisting words

There is other twisting words going on as well.
Because as much as the men of violence are trying to break down our societal values
is an example.

It is like a post about something completely different I posted on a few days ago.
So one sided, and somewhat wrong, partly wrong, whatever you want to call it, that it is a somewhat deceiving post.

Telling half a story, or a little part of a story, or more or less none of a story, is twisting too.

Ironic really, when there are posts elsewhere about social media being misleading.

I hoped the government would introduce legislation banning the use of balaclavas or face masks being used to intimidate, or hide appearance when involved in criminal activity.
I’m not sure if this can be done without a debate in Parliament.

There are reports this morning of those organising demonstrations/riots this evening, telling their supporters to mask up and leave their phones at home .

I’m finding the news hard to read, it’s so depressing

I dont doubt there are people using social media to cause unrest, but we all need to look to ourselves too, to try and post without twisting words, and misleading others, by using bias or part truths or half truths or whatever.

WhiteWavemark2
What do you think our security services have Neen doing for the past week?
People have already been charged with posting inflammatory remarks.

www.lbc.co.uk/news/first-person-charged-with-stirring-up-racial-hatred-over-facebook-posts/#:~:text=Jordan%20Parlour%2C%20from%20Seacroft%2C%20Leeds,Leeds%20City%20Centre%20on%20Saturday.

“The News Agents” podcasts this week (Mon 5th & Tues 6th Aug) analyse the role of social media in the current riots.

Extremely thoughtful, intelligent analysis - worth a listen IMO.

Sadly I think that SM is more of a threat than a help. Algorithms increasingly drive polarisation, create extremism and allow people to spread lies and disinformation. Much as I dislike some news media at least there is some regulation but when large groups of the population get most of their "news" from TicTok, Instagram etc tbh it's a concern especially when some of it is fake and generated by bots and people seem unable to appreciate that.

Iam64 at least one police force was checking shops to see who had recently bought any balaclavas and apparently they found some people already known to the force. I can't remember which force off hand, but it was on their social media account

petra

WhiteWavemark2
What do you think our security services have Neen doing for the past week?
People have already been charged with posting inflammatory remarks.

www.lbc.co.uk/news/first-person-charged-with-stirring-up-racial-hatred-over-facebook-posts/#:~:text=Jordan%20Parlour%2C%20from%20Seacroft%2C%20Leeds,Leeds%20City%20Centre%20on%20Saturday.

Most disruptors have moved to less detectable platforms like Telegram, making it harder, if not impossible, to intercept messages and identify group members.

Surely our intelligence services are sophisticated enough to access Telegram!

If not, it’s time for them to step up and treat this for what it is … cyber terrorism.

If the detection of people in the UK who have misused social media to incite or promote the riots is successful and well publicised, that should act as a deterrent. I saw the first prosecution was yesterday. Names, ages and where they live is being published. The other key element is closing sites down which promote violence, which is much trickier.
I agree that the recording of the riots will enable a lot more prosecutions, which can only be for the good (although I still don’t understand the mentality of people going just to watch).

OldFrill

petra

WhiteWavemark2
What do you think our security services have Neen doing for the past week?
People have already been charged with posting inflammatory remarks.

www.lbc.co.uk/news/first-person-charged-with-stirring-up-racial-hatred-over-facebook-posts/#:~:text=Jordan%20Parlour%2C%20from%20Seacroft%2C%20Leeds,Leeds%20City%20Centre%20on%20Saturday.

Most disruptors have moved to less detectable platforms like Telegram, making it harder, if not impossible, to intercept messages and identify group members.

Telegram isn’t a secure platform though OldFrill, there have been hacks for malicious reasons many times, so I don’t know any young people who actually use it, for that reason. It’s like the social media equivalent of the dark web.

Tik Tok is apparently the worse for spreading stuff because it's not like the others. There is a programme about it on BBC3 tonight at 9pm called The Tik Tok Effect which was on before and I found shocking and scary, but we need to know these things.

The people running these social media platforms don't let their own children use them which says it all.

TikTok and Telegram operate in very similar ways - one is a Chinese platform, the other a Russian platform.

I think our govt will have access to “super hackers” as well as their own employed cyber specialists.

They employ similar things when trying to track the dark web. With the Cloud too there is often a virtual footprint. There’s some very clever people out there on both sides of the law.

One of the announcements in the Kings Speech was a bill to improve cyber security, so the government are on the case with it.
www.digitalhealth.net/2024/07/kings-speech-sets-out-labours-plans-for-cyber-security-digital-and-data/#:~:text=A%20new%20Cyber%20Security%20and,government's%20response%20to%20cyber%20attacks.

To revert to Iam's earlier post

There are reports this morning of those organising demonstrations/riots this evening, telling their supporters to mask up and leave their phones at home .

Even if the rioters don't film themselves I'm sure there would be onlookers only too happy to film enough to shop them.

I'm wondering how much appetite there is for rioting now. Are there enough 'rioters' ' to cause severe disruption in 30 different places (as is said to be the plan) or will they be spreading themselves too thinly?

It doesn't just aid and abet the police. If you apply for a job that needs a DBS (enhanced) as part of the vetting they check your online presence to make sure you aren't involved in anything that wouldn't fit with the setting you would be working in

I wouldn’t want to think my phone or social media accounts are being tapped by anyone, government or not. That is a dictatorship. Awful scenario. I thought only places like China and Russia did that sort of thing. If that is the UK you can keep it.