Policy & Internet

What Are the Police Doing on Twitter? Social Media, the Police and the Public

Jeremy Crump — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:44:12 PST

This article examines the growing interest since 2008 of UK police forces in the use of social media as a basis for engagement with the public. This interest is set in the context of a political agenda for increasing public trust and confidence in the police and enlistment of the public as jointly responsible for crime reduction. An ambitious national police agenda led by the Association of Chief Police Officers has promoted the use of social media to engage groups previously uninvolved in discussion of local policing, and has envisaged its use as a basis for deliberation about priorities. This article investigates how successful this endeavour has been, and how far a hierarchical organisation - the police service - has been able to exploit the networked characteristics of social media and the potential of user created content. The paper analyses the police use of one particular platform, Twitter, including the structure of networks and the content of the messages. The article concludes that the constraints of police culture have meant that Twitter has been used cautiously and as a reinforcement for existing means of communication. It puts forward key issues which need to be addressed if the more ambitious aims for social media are to be achieved.

Micro-Mobilization, Social Media and Coping Strategies: Some Dutch Experiences

Victor Bekkers et al. — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:44:08 PST

New social network technology provides individuals and small groups with powerful resources for rapid political mobilization. Such mobilization can create strategic surprises for policy-makers. Two cases of Web 2.0 driven micro-mobilization processes and one case of Web 1.0 driven micro-mobilization process are considered. In these cases policy-makers were taken by surprise because their repertoires of action were focused primarily on official arrangements of consultation and on the news coverage by traditional media. As a result, micro-mobilization may confront traditional intermediary organizations and policy-makers with rather ‘uncontrolled’ demands for change. These demands may act as ‘focusing events’ that challenge the legitimacy of public organizations, policy programmes and existing consultation and negotiation patterns. Governments need to respond to these focusing events and the paper ends by discussing some coping strategies governments may need to deploy.

Coping with the Cornucopia: Can Text Mining Help Handle the Data Deluge in Public Policy Analysis?

Aude Bicquelet et al. — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:44:04 PST

Information and communication technologies such as the Internet have created a plethora of opportunities for the participation of citizens in policymaking. In the United Kingdom, for instance, this trend has emerged at national and local levels, in domains as diverse as Education, the Environment and Health Care. Given a general renewal of interest in incorporating public opinion into policymaking, devices such as online consultations and electronic surveys have rendered the appeal to ‘the people’ seemingly easier. But an important problem arising from involving the public in decision-making exercises through large-scale electronic participatory devices is the amount of textual data generated. Although there is now a large body of literature devoted to commentating and analysing ways in which politicians ought to be involved in listening and responding to public participation in decision-making, issues pertaining to the implementation of such exercises in the light of the volume of information that they produce have largely remained unexplored. In this paper, we assess the potential benefits and shortcomings of using Text Mining methods for the analysis of large-scale consultations submitted via Internet. To this end, the paper reports on the application of computer-aided text analysis to a public consultation organised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2008 on ‘End of Life Medicines’.

A Platform for Individualized Campaigning? Social Media and Parliamentary Candidates in the 2009 Norwegian Election Campaign

Rune Karlsen — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:44:01 PST

It is often argued that new technology will increase centralization of political parties but Internet-based technologies, especially the social media, provide individual candidates with opportunities to run campaigns more independently of the central party. This article argues that the effect of new technology depends on the contextual characteristics of the campaign, most importantly the nomination process and the electoral system. It investigates the effect of online social media on individual candidate campaigning through a study of parliamentary candidates’ use of social media in the 2009 Norwegian election campaign, a campaign environment with few incentives for candidates to undertake individualized campaigning, using the 2009 Norwegian Candidate Study. Findings reveal that online social media are much appreciated by candidates and are used to a great extent. The technological effect on individual campaigning appears small as candidates who consider social media important do not focus on their own candidacy to a greater extent than other candidates. However, candidates with an individualized candidate focus are more inclined to use Facebook and consider social media important for their campaign communication. Consequently, although social media in the short run are not likely to increase individualized campaigning as such, candidates with a candidate focus have been offered a new channel for self-promotion.

Online Public Engagement in the Obama Administration: Building a Democracy Bubble?

Thomas A. Bryer — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:43:58 PST

Following the Bush administration, the Obama team enhanced access for citizens to participatory venues primarily through online mechanisms. Developing such channels gives citizens opportunity to develop their citizenship skills, potentially influence policy, and become more connected to community life. The administration can be applauded for participatory innovations, but needs to proceed strategically to ensure the innovations do not produce more harm than good and to ensure that the real change they are producing is sustainable into the next administration. This article develops the idea of a “democracy bubble” as the intersection of open access to participatory venues and inflated citizen expectations for what the participatory processes can deliver. It develops related ideas of a “democracy crater,” “democracy dropouts,” and “democracy demand.” Three fully online or online-mediated Obama administration participation initiatives are assessed for their potential to lead to a democracy bubble: the development of Open Government Plans, the Electronic Town Hall meeting, and co-produced community forums on health care and job creation. A primary finding is that the administration can do a better job establishing and managing expectations for what can be achieved through participation in its various initiatives.

The Impact of e-Government Promotion in Europe: Internet Dependence and Critical Mass

Xavier Fernández-i-Marín — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:43:55 PST

Governments and public bodies have been fostering the development of e-Government services during the last decade, promoting more and better administrative services through digital channels. The impact of this process, however, has not been fully assessed. This article investigates the relative impact of two key factors on the diffusion of e-Government services; the level of Internet penetration and investment by governments in more and better government services. The aim is to analyze across European countries the impact of e-Government policies on their adoption, under different levels of Internet penetration, enabling an assessment of how promotion of e-Government (through investment in more and better services, for example) can have the maximum impact on citizenship adoption. It reports analysis of a cross-sectional dataset of European countries using a Bayesian linear model. Results show that when Internet users are scarce, policies to foster e-Government adoption will have little - although not negligible - impact. But at a certain level of Internet penetration, focused e-Government policies have a substantial impact on citizens' adoption of the technology. The results also highlight the importance of investing in e-Government in the appropriate moment, that is, when its impact can be greatest. The paper, then, addresses the factors that make eGovernment policy more effective. The Bayesian inference used allows the research to avoid artificial assumptions common in comparative politics research, to design more flexible models and to present the results in a more natural way.

Editorial

Helen Z. Margetts — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:43:52 PST

This editorial introduces the articles of volume 3, issue 4 of Policy and Internet.

Fundamental Policy Considerations for the Regulation of Internet Cross-Border Privacy Issues

Dan J.B. Svantesson — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:56:14 PDT

We are currently witnessing major changes to the regulation of privacy, both in Europe and North America, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. One of the most complex and controversial aspects of any regulatory scheme addressing privacy is the regulation of cross-border data flows, and such regulation has become all the more complex in an interconnected world. After providing some necessary background observations regarding the issues surrounding the regulation of cross-border data flows on the Internet, this article identifies and analyses eight fundamental policy considerations for any regulatory scheme addressing cross-border privacy issues.

Fighting Hate and Bigotry on the Internet

Raphael Cohen-Almagor — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:56:08 PDT

Internet hate speech is a specific type of online content that is designed to threaten certain groups publicly and act as propaganda for offline organizations. Hate groups use websites for sharing ideology, propaganda, linking to similar sites, recruiting new converts, advocating violence and threatening others. This article analyzes the ways hate speech on the Internet can be countered. From the perspective of applied ethics, it discusses the issue in the context of moral and social responsibility, a neglected perspective in the New Media literature. The study discusses the targets of hate on the Internet, provides a framework within which problems can be identified and resolved by accentuating moral and social responsibility, and articulates possible policy solutions to combat this increasing problem.

Conditional Citizenship? Electronic Networks and the New Conditionality in Public Policy

Paul Henman — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:56:02 PDT

Governments throughout the world are increasingly making use of new forms of ‘conditional’ public and social policies. While some policies have always been conditional, for example through means-testing, these new policies are notable for making a benefit or service in one policy domain conditional on a situation or behavior in another policy domain. In addition to political rationalities and realities, this article argues that any understanding of the rise of such policies must take account of electronic information networks. Such networks not only enable such policies to be implemented, they have also stimulated networked ways of thinking among policy makers. This argument is illustrated by reference to the electronic Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and the conditional Maternity Immunisation Allowance. The article concludes by examining how this combination of electronic technologies, political ideas and political realities is reconfiguring contemporary social citizenship, making it more conditional, segmented, individualized and unequal.

Citizenship in the Digital Age: The Case of Denmark

Jakob Linaa Jensen — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:55:56 PDT

This article discusses citizenship in the age of new media using Denmark as a critical case study. It argues for the importance of considering cultural as well as political aspects of citizenship, and for the inclusion of emotions and belonging as well as rational political acts. There are strong relationships between the experience and practice of citizenship, and it is demonstrated that intensive media use and experience/practice of citizenship are highly interrelated: eager media users are also the most active and confident citizens. To a certain extent new media tend to reinforce existing behavior patterns and attitudes: those feeling engaged are those who use ICTs most widely, and new media provide them with yet another platform for practicing citizenship. It is also shown, however, that there is a segment of new media users who prefer online cultural and social activities to offline ones. As this segment grows, one might expect an expanded number of active citizens, mobilized by the new media themselves.

Targeting Voters via the Web – A Comparative Structural Analysis of Austrian and German Party Websites

Uta Russmann — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:55:51 PDT

The growth of parties’ web-based activities over the last decade has led to a more sophisticated use of websites, and Web campaigns are increasingly embedded in a general political marketing strategy. This study investigates the extent to which political parties use the Internet to attract different target groups of voters. The online audience can be seen as one mass or as carefully defined target segments, for example relating to party affiliation, age or gender. The paper analyzes the occurrence of online targeting on political parties websites during the most recent Austrian and German National Elections (2008/2009). Comparison within and between countries reveals similarities between parties that are more striking than differences at a general level, but it also identifies that catch-all parties and client parties apply different targeting patterns. Client parties address the general public just as much as different target groups, whereas catch-all parties tailor their websites to a greater extent to specific target segments.

Corruption and Software Piracy: A Comparative Perspective

Antonio R. Andrés et al. — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:55:45 PDT

This article examines the influence of corruption on software piracy across countries. Drawing on a simple theoretical model and a large sample of countries for a recent time period, it addresses three key questions: (i) What are the key determinants of software piracy?; (ii) How do nations with different piracy levels respond differently to factors that affect piracy, especially corruption?; and (iii) Is there a two-way causality between software piracy and corruption? It is demonstrated that corruption levels help explain variations in software piracy across countries, with higher levels of corruption correlating with higher levels of software piracy. However, the influences of different factors (including democracy, economic prosperity, market size and legal factors as well as corruption) are sensitive to prevailing levels of piracy, varying across countries with different piracy rates. Policy implications are discussed; these findings suggest that anti-piracy initiatives would need to be fine-tuned to country context, such as existing piracy levels.

Editorial

Helen Z. Margetts — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:55:40 PDT

This editorial introduces the articles in the third issue of volume three of Policy & Internet. The six published articles all focus on a substantive public policy issue arising from widespread use of the Internet: the links between software piracy and country corruption, voter targeting online in political campaigns, cultural aspects of digital citizenship, the increasingly 'conditional' nature of governments' public and social policies, policy responses to the growing problem of online hate speech, and policy considerations for the regulation of cross-border data flows.

A Public-Private Partnership Model for National Cybersecurity

Malcolm Shore et al. — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:58 PDT

Many governments have established public-private partnerships to manage critical infrastructure protection, one element of which is telecommunications. However, in New Zealand these collaborative efforts have had limited success and the rapid increase in use of the Internet to support both society and commerce has led to the need for a more specific focus in this area. While regulation is an effective means of forcing action by industry, it can lead to significant unintended consequences and undesirable behaviours. This article explores how governments can have confidence in the safety and protection of their critical national infrastructures through a model of assured public-private partnership that is based on an incentivised adoption approach to drive optimal outcomes within the New Zealand context.

Do Certification Seals Permit a Price Premium for Online Security and Privacy?

Michael R. Hammock — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:55 PDT

If some consumers care more about online privacy and security than others, and if providing privacy and security imposes opportunity costs on firms, then firms with more privacy and security measures should charge higher prices, and consumers who value these measures should be willing to pay higher prices. To test this hypothesis, data on the prices and certification seals of websites were collected. Examination of the data reveals moderate evidence that firms with a specific kind of security seal enjoy a price premium, and no evidence that sites displaying other seals enjoy a price premium. These findings suggest either that regulation may be unnecessary because markets are correctly pricing security and privacy, or that there is a market failure preventing privacy certification seals from providing credible signals to consumers.

Finding the Key Players in Online Child Exploitation Networks

Bryce G. Westlake et al. — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:50 PDT

The growth of the Internet has been paralleled with a similar growth in online child exploitation. Since completely shutting down child exploitation websites is difficult (or arguably impossible), the goal must be to find the most efficient way of identifying the key targets and then to apprehend them. Traditionally, online investigations have been manual and centered on images. However, we argue that target prioritization needs to take more than just images into consideration, and that the investigating process needs to become more systematic. Drawing from a web crawler we specifically designed for extracting child exploitation website networks, this study 1) examines the structure of ten child exploitation networks and compares it to a control group of sports-related websites, and 2) provides a measure (network capital) that allows for identifying the most important targets for law enforcement purposes among our sample of websites. Results show that network capital – a combination between severity of content (images, videos, and text) and connectivity (links to other websites) – is a more reliable measure of target prioritization than more traditional measures of network centrality taken alone. Policy implications are discussed.

Overcoming the Warez Paradox: Online Piracy Groups and Situational Crime Prevention

Jonathan Basamanowicz et al. — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:46 PDT

US federal law enforcement operations occurring between 2001 and 2005 attempted to disrupt the online piracy scene, targeting copyright piracy rings known as 'warez groups'. Previous work on warez groups has demonstrated a paradoxical situation where attempts to curtail warez group activities through policing and advancements in DRM only further encourage such groups to crack and distribute content. This study collected data on 93 convictions from these policing operations to construct a crime script of these groups' motivations and modus operandi in the release process. The results confirm previous findings that attempts to disrupt the activities of warez groups are counterproductive. To avoid the paradox, this study suggests that industry account for the motivations and modus operandi of these groups by creating DRM technologies which allow un-cracked content to seep through the testing step of the script, thereby placing a group's ability to obtain prestige at risk. Law enforcement should focus on apprehending crackers, as they are the most significant step in the release process.

Adolescents and Cybercrime: Navigating between Freedom and Control

Simone van der Hof et al. — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:41 PDT

Online safety for children and adolescents as a policy issue finds itself in a turbulent arena: emerging new mobile and online technologies and applications carry opportunities and risks and constantly bring new challenges. This article explores particularly the field of adolescents and cybercrime against a background of a culture of control combined with an increasing use of new media by youngsters. Based on two particular cases, i.e. 'grooming'—a new development in criminal law where children and adolescents are treated as (potential) victims in need of protection—and 'sexting'—a new development in online risk-taking where adolescents are framed as (potential) offenders in need of repression—we argue that public policy with respect to adolescent behaviour and online risks is tilting towards more control. These developments in cybercrime policy that focus on criminal law as a policy instrument disturb the balance between the freedom of adolescents to develop into responsible and independent adults and controlling online risks. Other, more promising avenues, such as encouraging digital literacy of citizens and protecting those children who are particularly vulnerable, should rather be at the forefront of public policy.

Teenage Folly or Child Abuse? State Responses to "Sexting" by Minors in the U.S. and Germany

Sandra Schmitz et al. — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:37 PDT

As the digital generation grows up, societies' norms are being challenged by changing views of what is acceptable communication. Young people live much of their lives online: texting and 'sexting' their thoughts and images to their intimates and strangers alike. These changes have challenged the legal structures committed to protecting society's youth. This paper explores the development of the law in the United States and Germany concerning sexualized text messages or 'sexts'. It asks whether and under what conditions such communications are pornographic and represent a signal for prosecution or protection.