Where Are Social Media’s Seat Belts?

In 2011, 15-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons was allegedly raped by four teenaged boys who were never charged or prosecuted for the crime.

One of those teenaged boys shared a photo of the incident with friends online. The photo was distributed widely among their school community and beyond.

As a result, Parsons faced intense bullying on Facebook and other social media. Boys would anonymously proposition her. Girls accused her of being a slut. She was repeatedly slandered.

Unable to further bear the ceaseless assault, last week Parsons hung herself in the bathroom of her family’s home.

If the story sounds familiar, that’s not surprising.

It was only last October that Amanda Todd’s suicide drew our attention to the perils of unregulated social media use. She also took her own life after facing intense online bullying as a result of a sexual assault.

Who’s next? Perhaps the 16-year-old girl from Steubenville, Ohio, who was drugged and brutally gang raped by members of the local high school football team last year. As with the other incidents, pictures were spread via social media.

Chances are, social media will kill her too.

Web 3.0: Kamikaze Business

Near the end of World War II, Japan began turning some of its aircraft into massive piloted bombs. Packed full of explosives, once in the air these planes would be unable to even land.

Their human pilots had one mission: blow up. Preferrably by ploughing into Allied sea vessels, of course.

It was a tremendous and ironic admission on Japan’s part. Unable to win the war on traditional terms, the country and its soliders needed to make the ultimate sacrifice: self immolation. Kamikaze.

That same sort of mentality seems to be gripping the business side of the technology industry these days.

Companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have grown into monstrous, seemingly unstoppable business behemoths. Startup businesses can’t possibly compete, much less beat them. The odds of success are against them from the start.

So instead of approaching business from a traditional standpoint, startups are adopting a kamikaze mentality. They don’t even plan to succeed. They plan to launch and crash. Preferrably into the pockebook of Google or Facebook or Apple, of course.

Time To Turf That Northwestel Email Address

Internet competition is coming.

Maybe not today, or tomorrow.

But it’ll be here soon. And you need to make sure that your options are open when it arrives.

Your first step in preparing for internet competition is to ditch that tired old Northwestel email address you have.

You know the one I mean. It ends in “@northwestel.net”.

That address is the chain connecting you to the ball that is Northwestel.

Until you get rid of it, you’ll be hogtied to that company’s services.

So it’s best to get started on turfing it now.

Technically, getting a new email address is easy.

The hard part is moving away from your old one. That takes time and effort. And it shouldn’t be rushed. You should give yourself a few months for the whole process to take place.

Conservative Internet Spying Bill is the Gun Registry of the Information Age

Trading bullets for bits, the Conservative government is this week replacing the infamously invasive and expensive long gun registry with a disturbing piece of pricey government paranoia, the internet registry.

In expressing the delusional underpinnings of his government’s new internet spying bill, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews decreed that folks who don’t support his proposed law are in league with child pornographers.

He delivered that illogical edict right about the time he solicited NDP support to scrap the long gun registry by saying, “It does nothing to help put an end to gun crimes nor has it saved one Canadian life”.

(In truth, there’s been a 41% reduction in homicides by long guns since the registry was introduced. But it’s well known Conservatives don’t deal in facts, so we’ll ignore that for now.)

Toew’s statement is actually hilarious because, no doubt, ten years and a few billion tax dollars from now, some NDP minister is going to say the exact same thing about his internet registry.

Exposure Scales of Social Media

Here’s my mental model for how publicly exposed I consider myself when using different types of social media, along with comparable real-world social environments:

There are two ways to look at my scale. The first is: how private do you want to be? The second is: how popular do you want to be perceived to be?

Why Canada Might Give Refuge to Muammar Gaddafi

The curly-haired dictator strides into the living room at 24 Sussex Drive, drops himself into a couch and tosses his muddied army boots up on the coffee table.

“Laureen!” he shouts. “Champagne! I must celebrate my new home!”

Mrs. Harper squeezes the Prime Minister’s hand nervously. “Yes, Mr. Gaddafi,” she says, then leaves the room.

Picking his nose, the deposed Libyan despot watches her go. “And wear those CFM boots from the royal wedding at dinner tonight. I very much like them.”

“Now wait a minute Muammar,” the Prime Minister interjects. “You can’t talk to my wife that way.”

Muammar Gaddafi gets up off the couch, flicks a booger on the floor, and approaches Stephen Harper.

“Stevey, Stevey. Thank-you for letting me in your country.”

Gaddafi gently grasps the Prime Minister’s tie and straightens it as he talks.

“Now that NDP prick is gone, you can do what you want. So here I am!”

He rests his hands on Harper’s shoulders.

“And I am here to work. You must pass your internet spy law so that I can give you what you need. I know more about spying on citizens on the internet than anyone else.”

Harper brushes away the former dictator’s dirty, calloused hands.

“Muammar, you don’t get it. I can’t just ram that legislation through right after Jack’s funeral. It’ll seem insensitive. I need more time.”

Gaddafi lifts a crystal decanter and pours generous doses of scotch into two glasses.

“Oh, I have time, Stevey. Plenty of time. I’m on your payroll now. But if you want to know what your citizens are doing on the internet, we have to get moving.”

He hands the Prime Minister a glass.

“So until I can work, I wait. Now send in your pretty daughter. I want to discuss something with her.”

Google Plus Might Be Worth My Soul After All

In my last column I was sorta critical of Google Plus. I described it as a tool to harvest personal information for resale on the global ad market.

I know I hurt Google’s feelings with my words, but I still believe that’s true. That’s the real reason Google introduced Plus.

But even knowing that, over the last couple of weeks I’ve taken quite a shine to Google Plus.

It’s the first social network I feel comfortable using.

And by that I mean it’s the first social network where I truly feel in control of what I post.

Will You Give Yourself to Google for Plus?

Dear Google,

I am now a citizen of Plus, and therefore your humble servant.

I have been admitted into your rare realm of Circles, Huddles, Streams, Sparks, and Hangouts.

It truly is a metaphorical place, a wondrous world of social baubles designed to mesmerize me into a state of pure trust, such that I’ll share my inner most secrets with you.

This is the place you want me to abandon Facebook, turf Twitter, and toss Tumblr for.

You want this to be my internet home, the place I hang my hat online. And for that you’ve manufactured a glorious array of trinkets and toys such that I’ll never be lonely ever, ever again.

And you’ll let me stay here free.

The only thing I have to give you in exchange is my soul. And that you’ll resell again and again to whomever is willing to toss a few pennies your way.