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A Chat With Zavilia, a Tool For Identifying Rioters
HansonMB writes with an interview in Motherboard.tv. From the article: "Social media isn't just great for starting 'social unrest,' it's proving to be quite helpful for quashing it too. Not long after the bricks began to fly in London's latest kerfuffle, locals angry over raging mobs scrambled to assist the police in their attempt to identify street-fighters and free-for-all hooligans ... Now with more than 1,000 people charged over the chaos, a few citizen groups continue to provide web-based rioter identification platforms, in hopes of being good subjects, maintaining the country's pursuit of order, and keeping their neighborhoods safe."
Who else misread that as 'Chavzilla'?
The Zavilla instigator clearly doesn't understand IP law, and more specifically, copyright law. References to copyright protection in the original article were positively cringeworthy. I also struggle to see how this will scale if each photo has to be hand annotated, it needs google-style auto face-detection.
That sword is only double-edged if you believe 'the crowd' would be keen on identifying legitimate protesters as much as they are in identifying rioters.
Those who would do so would likely still do so if the police simply put up the same picture on their own website.
This platform is really no different from any other in which individuals are attempted to be identified. Think of the effort to identify the girl who stomped on a kitten, or the guys throwing a dog off of a bridge, etc. It's just on a much larger scale because this time it's rioters - of which there were hundreds.
Something that bothers me, however, is the apparent aim at monetization. Quoth the article:
If you are free to use social media to organise riots, I am just as free to use the same social media to identify the idiots who rampaged through my neighbourhood. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences.
[...] The copyrights have been made on the Zavilia brand name, principle, and technologies. [...]
[...] Although we cannot comment on exact figures, we can confirm the website peaked at over 100,000 unique visitors. [...]
[...] We have made contact with the authorities regarding several identifications, although we cannot disclose the exact figure due to security reasons. [...]
[...] entire documents detailing why Zavilia is “unethical” and “encourages vigilantism.” These remarks are however unfounded, and no damage has been done. [...]
[...] We do envisage much greater uses for Zavilia. However, as these are currently copyright pending, we cannot disclose any further details. [...]
Is it just me or is this interview nothing but a stream of useless PR crap? Our platform is so super-secret, 'cause it's copyrighted, y'know, and it does mighty good, but canna tell ya, 'cause it's so super-secret. Yeah, right. Colour me unimpressed.
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
So I just went to the zavilla webiste: The main page says "The development of Zavilia: Identify UK Rioters has been temporarily paused due to a substantial decrease in traffic and in user interactions. However, we fully intend to continue development at some point in the near future." In other words, either someone has got to them or there wasn't much of an interest anyway. Also, the old website has what? About 20 photos, most of which seem to have been taken from either Getty or Reuters. I can't exactly see this going anywhere.
The recent "riots" were not political protests, just a load of smashing into shops and stealing goods. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth - white goods, food, alchohol, clothing, electronics. And the crime-spree was not limited to robbery, sadly: 3 men were murdered defending their property, police were deliberately run over, people's appartments were torched. Cars, busses and entire shops were burned out. No protest here, no message, no placard waving, just people acting like animals and grabbing whatever they could.
It's Britain not Briton btw.
Great, the idea of using social media to identify rioters, dissidents and other criminals has already proved very successful in China, another flourishing democracy. Just don't forgot to sent death threats to the rioters, make sure they loose their jobs, and humiliate them publicly before handing them over to the authorities. In combination with censorship this creates exactly the right amount of fear and respect for authorities that is needed to keep the citizens calm.
It is the openly stated goal of professional troll and attention whore Andrew Brietbart to do exactly what you have described... to Democrats. He has done exactly this to an innocent woman and an entire organization.
That being said, if you actually think that some random person off of Main Street, Wall Street or any other street in America would do what you have described, you need to seek the services of a professional psychiatrist.
The effect of the Internet on many people is described in John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
That being said, this did not originate on the Internet. Combine shockingly high unemployment among the poor, the belief that they have no voice in government or the media (recent peaceful protests, apparently, received zero coverage), the ned/chav/yob phenomenon and the reality that lot of lower-class people in Britain are furious that they are being told to bend over and take it because of the austerity measures "needed" to balance the budget while Parliament discusses how much to cut taxes on the rich... and you've got a powder keg. Some douchebag drug dealer getting shot dead was merely the "us vs them" trigger.
You make an interesting point. In East Germany, the power of the Stasi was not that they were everywhere, but that they had enough snitches everywhere. This is usually how dictatorships handle things.
Korma: Good
Well, I can see a message in it. "I feel screwed by society, so I won't play by its rules".
Strange... What I read, looked like:
i'm a chav!!! i'm a CHAAAAV!
suck my diiiiick!! I'M A CHAV!!
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
No, you and Breitbart are racist bastards who were attacking the NAACP because it's a black organization. I heard the video and you're mischaracterizing the response of the audience.
This video was deceptive and irresponsible to the point of lying. If Shirley Sherrod wasn't a public figure, it would be libel, and it may be libel anyway.
This was a classic case of quoting someone out of context to make it look as if they were saying the opposite of what they were actually saying.
Professional news organizations, if they're doing what they claim to do, contact the subject of personal attacks before they publish it.
Breitbart irresponsibly published this deceptive excerpt without contacting the victim of his attack. That's why he's irresponsible.
The Obama administration didn't behave responsibly on this either. The people who made the decision to fire Shirley Sherrod should have been fired themselves.
* I use the quotes around innocent woman because of Sherrod's involvement in the Pigford settlement which has elements that suggest impropriety. I have not followed the Pigford settlement story cloesly enough to have a clear opinion on whether or not improprieties actually occurred or whether or not Sherrod was involved in such improprieties.
Well that's the issue, isn't it? Why don't you look it up on Wikipedia before you repeat Breitbart's racist attacks.
As for ACORN, it was a lie because most or all of the people caught on the video realized that somebody was scamming them, and they responded in different ways, including playing along. Some of the ACORN offices reported it to the police. Others correctly concluded that the story was so absurd that it wasn't real. Others were caught off guard and didn't know how to respond -- this isn't the kind of situation they're trained for and expecting. O'Keefe selectively and deceptively picked out the worst ones. You can look that up on Wikipedia too.
And nothing on that video represents the overall policies and actions of ACORN.
The Democrats didn't respond too well to this one either.