This was the blog I didn’t expect to be writing after the #aitech event. Things were fairly cerebral, looking at wider issues. It’s now time to get down and dirty.
You see, we were shown a video of a couple of guys taking the rise out of politicians in Azerbaijan. It had been posted on YouTube by blogger Adnan Hajizade following a news story about how the Azerbaijani government had allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars importing donkeys from Germany. (The deal is suspected by many Azerbaijanis to have masked some kind of corruption/misappropriation of funds.)
The video (humorously) questions the purchase of the donkeys, the introduction of restrictive legislation for NGOs and the low priority the government attributes to human rights.
Only now it’s not so funny. On Wednesday, a Baku court upheld the convictions of Adnan and fellow blogger Emin Milli sentencing them to over two years prison each.
We’ve all done it. Turned our icons green or pink or red. Or added a Twitter avatar. Retweeted a good cause. Posted something to a profile. Joined a fan page.
Social media makes it easy to support a cause, but to what effect?
Take Twitter. Things aren’t right in Iran, but somehow Iran is yesterday’s tweet. Haiti was so last month. Support is big, powerful and turns it’s glare on an issue, but it’s as fleeting as an article in yesterday’s paper.
Social media support for human rights can amount to little more than ‘slacktivism’ (coined by Kevin Anderson, the Guardian) or ‘mousey activism’ (coined by Annabelle Sreberny, Professor of Global Media and Communication, School of Oriental and African Studies).
Okay, okay! I know! The event was a week ago, and I’ve been slow to blog. But quite apart from work and Twestival commitments, I needed to think about which bit to blog. There were so many issues raised.
Let me put this into context for you. I knew before I went that the answer was going to be: “It depends!” But if you have a panel like this, you know there’s going to be something worth hearing:
- Kevin Anderson, blogs editor of the Guardian
- Susan Pointer, Director of Public Policy & Government Relations, Google
- Annabelle Sreberny, Professor of Global Media and Communication, School of Oriental and African Studies (special interest Iran, bloggers & social media)
- the iPhone (otherwise known as Andrew Keen, the “antichrist of Silicon Valley”and author of ‘How the internet is killing our culture’ author, held up to a microphone because he couldn’t attend) Andrew Keen
Add to this that it was being chaired by Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology Correspondent for the BBC, and you’ll know why it was a ‘must attend’ event. If I say to you that the audience was as packed with equally qualified people, like BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne (currently barred from Iran), you’ll forgive me for feeling that whatever I say won’t do justice to the debate. (Take a quick peek at who’s blogged already and you’ll understand why.)
So here’s the deal. Here are five central thoughts (there were a lot more!) to expand upon later:
RESEARCH SHOWS BRANDS MAY BE FALLING FOUL OF LAWS ONLINE
81% rate their knowledge of social media marketing law as limited or non-existent
BBC, NHS Choices, Gumtree and FutureGov unite to share best practice
London, February 25th 2010:
Dominic Sparkes, MD, Tempero
Research from moderation company Tempero, shows 81% of brands rate knowledge of laws regulating their social media marketing as limited to non-existent. The number one reason cited for low knowledge was that company activity was limited to external platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but a UK solicitor cautioned against this misconception.
Danvers Baillieu, solicitor at Winston & Strawn, who specialises in representing web based companies such as Huddle and Zoombu , and runs Bootlaw, clarified:
“If you edit or run a group or community, even if you’re not responsible for the hosting of content (such as a Flickr group), then choosing not to exercise control and ignoring requests to remove defamatory or illegal content would not be a defence to any claims brought against you.”
10 year UGC veterans Tempero, which says it protects more blue chip brands online than any other moderation company, is pro-actively tackling brand confusion on legitimate social marketing with the launch of a free eBook called ‘UGC and the law’.
communications | claireatwaves | 
March 11, 2010 11:42 am | 
Comments (1) 
Subscribe