Ballot Selfies
Selfies are a remarkably popular activity that was enhanced by smart phone manufacturers when they placed a second camera that faces toward the user on the device. People take selfies of any experience and every activity in their lives and quickly post them to social media to let the friends (and the world) know what they've done, created or even destroyed.
Selfies are a remarkably popular activity that was enhanced by smart phone manufacturers when they placed a second camera that faces toward the user on the device. People take selfies of any experience and every activity in their lives and quickly post them to social media to let the friends (and the world) know what they've done, created or even destroyed.
One place where a person may run into a problem is taking a selfie in the voting booth to show everyone on a social media site who the person voted for. Many voters are proud of who they supported and voted for in an election and want to post a selfie showing their ballot to publicize the commitment to a candidate and encourage friends to do the same.
Many states prohibit this. These states reason that a person could be coerced into voting for a particular candidate and a ballot selfie is taken to confirm the person voted as ordered.
Laws preventing ballot selfies have created a conflict between the First Amendment free speech rights of the selfie-taker and the desire of states to ensure all elections are free of fraud and that no votes were "bought."
In November 2016, New Hampshire's law barring ballot selfies was declared unconstitutional by the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals. But then, just this fall (September 2017), a federal district court ruled that a New York City law banning photographs of completed ballots could stand and the minimal free speech restrictions by the narrowly defined law are reasonable to ensure election integrity.
Part 1) Find out what the laws regarding ballot selfies are in the state or country where you would vote.
Research arguments on both sides of the issue.
Which side of the issue (Free Speech versus Election Integrity) are you on and why?
Write your answer in a manner to persuade someone with an opposing point view.
Part 2) Consider the following:
Most of us live in countries with a stable government and election system. In the fall of 2017, the Kenyan Supreme Court nullified that country's August elections because there was ample evidence of possible election fraud. A new runoff election was scheduled for October.
Perform additional research on the 2017 Kenyan election and a few other elections where there were accusations of election fraud.
How would allowing ballot selfies in this election have supported the claims of election fraud?
How would allowing ballot selfies potentially have prevented election fraud?
Should the political environment be considered when balancing free speech and election integrity? Why or why not? (In answering this, think about when free speech is most important and when it is typically most restricted.)
Selling Our Internet Activity
In March, 2017, Congress voted to eliminate rules that "would have required home Internet and mobile broadband providers to get consumers' opt-in consent before selling or sharing Web browsing history, app usage history, and other private information with advertisers and other companies." -- Ars Technica, 3/29/2017
In March, 2017, Congress voted to eliminate rules that "would have required home Internet and mobile broadband providers to get consumers' opt-in consent before selling or sharing Web browsing history, app usage history, and other private information with advertisers and other companies." -- Ars Technica, 3/29/2017
You can get more information on this decision from this article and the additional references the article links to:
ISPs and FCC Chair Ajit Pai celebrate death of online privacy rules
Research, Analyze, Decide, Propose
- Consider that you are a staffer for the FCC. Write at least a 300-word response that will be posted on the FCC web site for consumers that explains the benefits and reasoning behind this decision.
- Assume the role of a privacy advocate in the district of RI Representative James Langevine. Write your post as if it was a memo to Mr. Langevine explaining why he should vote against revoking these rules.
- Vote with a "Like" on the FCC response and Langevine memo that you feel was the most persuasive and write a short paragraph explaining why.
I encourage you to dig into this topic with information from the textbook and additional online resources. At the end of each post, be sure to include links to any references you used other than the above URL and textbook.
Social Rating Systems
By 2020 (in less than 3 years), the government of China plans to have a system that assigns each person a social rating based on the person’s financial transactions, how he or she behaves in public and at work, etc. Already, face-recognition technology installed along streets detects jaywalkers and displays their photos on large public screens. These systems and more would be linked together to create the social rating.
By 2020 (in less than 3 years), the government of China plans to have a system that assigns each person a social rating based on the person’s financial transactions, how he or she behaves in public and at work, etc. Already, face-recognition technology installed along streets detects jaywalkers and displays their photos on large public screens. These systems and more would be linked together to create the social rating.
Several Chinese companies already partially implement a slimmed down version of this system as part of their normal services. The United States has a smaller version of this in its "Credit Score" system.
This BBC article can serve as a starting point for investigating this system and others similar:
China 'social credit': Beijing sets up huge system
Commercial systems that are currently implemented, for example with Sesame, Alibaba and Baihe, Chinese users seem to accept the social score as something good. As is quoted in the article, "Credit systems build trust between all citizens."
Research, Analyze, Decide, Propose
Assume the role of a data engineer at either Google, Facebook or Amazon. Each of these companies compete globally with Alibaba. Your department head has asked you to put together a short memo that would persuade her executive vice president that the company should use the massive amount of data it gathers on its members to creating a "social rating" also.
Post at least two carefully supported reasons why Google or Amazon should pursue this strategy.
Post reasons why customers of Google, Facebook or Amazon would resist a social scoring system? What differences (if any) are there between Chinese citizens, and citizens of America, India or other nations?
For the classroom: Comment on at least one other classmates posts. "Like" a classmate's post that was particularly persuasive and comment why.