Risky Networks

Risky Networks

A blog recognizing that a risky network anywhere is a threat to society everywhere.

#NoPhoneNoLife: Limiting access to internet by banning mobile phones in immigration detention centres

#infodemic / #recently / #socialmedia 2 Comments

Imagine that you have just taken a life-threatening journey to a foreign country to seek asylum. Not only your boat has sunk in the middle of the ocean, but you have also been detained and transported to an island with minimal infrastructure to be essentially imprisoned, though you have not actually committed a crime. On top of this, the one and only means for you to keep in touch with your family and let them know you are alive, is taken away from you. Your mobile phone is, or was, your lifeline.

Humanitarians of Tinder – Gamification and appeals to emotions in misrepresentations of development

#digitalfailure / #socialmedia 3 Comments

Once aimlessly scrolling through Instagram I stumbled on an account called Humanitarians of Tinder. The beautiful but simple logo of the page could point towards anything between a high-end fashion brand and a newspaper, a creative trick to attract curious Instagrammers such as myself on the page. Once I clicked on the profile, the content unveiled instead a quite unaesthetic collection of screenshots of Tinder profiles.

Risky Networks Weekly Review – 25 September 2020

#digitalfailure / #ict.gov / #socialmedia / Uncategorized

This week our writers Ellimaija and Anna discuss the negative side of social media networks within philanthropy and ethnic tensions.    In Celebrity philanthropy: The risks of commercial social networks for development work, Ellimaija explains how the growing popularity of celebrity philanthropy on social media represents a new form of …

From online hate to offline crime: Facebook’s role in the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar

#ict.gov / #socialmedia 1 comment

The Rohingya crisis – the conflict between Buddhists and a Muslim minority in the Rakhine state in Myanmar – which caused a mass exodus in 2017 is widely known. The international media has been producing stories about the refugees arriving in Bangladesh, about the conflict itself and about Human Rights and press freedom in Myanmar. Nevertheless, it took some time for the world to figure out the factors that made this centuries-old conflict escalate that extremely in 2012 and again in 2017. One of those factors is Facebook.

Celebrity philanthropy: The risks of commercial social networks for development work

#digitalfailure / #socialmedia

Celebrities’ work in charities is not new, but their involvement in charities has become more and more popular in the global north starting from the 1990s. So-called “celebrity philanthropy”, already strongly present in the traditional media, has been transposed it the 21st century to social media.

Welcome!

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Welcome to our blog Risky Networks!

Our world is made up of various networks that serve to improve global livelihoods. However, each network has its own set of challenges. We – four students of Malmö University – founded Risky Networks to focus on the challenges or possible dangers that could emerge in digital communication networks in the international development field, across social media, data and new media. Though often considered coined “ICT4Bad”, Risky Networks presents weekly balanced arguments on this phenomena for 6 weeks. Enjoy reading!