Vancouver Riots 2011 : when social media work for justice

Granville Island, Vancouver (BC) © WnnR

Dear reader, do you have any idea how it feels to live in Vancouver ? Well… I do ! I’ve spent four months of my life up there in 2011, and trust me, what you read, hear and see in the media is true : Vancouver is one of the best places in the world, and according to a ranking established by The Economist, it is the third most livable city on the planet nowadays. The reason I am now narrating you this part of my life is not a crucial need to talk about myself. I simply want you to keep in mind that Vancouver is a good girl, before talking to you about a dark time of its life.

In June 2011, the Vancouver Canucks, were competing in the finals of the Stanley Cup, the highest level competition of ice hockey in North America. After six games against the Boston Bruins, they were tied : each team had won three games. The seventh was then the most important, the decisive game. The worst scenario for the Canucks happened : they lost the game 0 to 4 and missed the cup just as they did in 1994 and 1982 (dear hockey fans, you’re invited to follow this link for more statistics).

Hockey can be considered as a religion in Vancouver, and every game night, thousands of people wearing white and blue shirts with the orca in the front, invade either the stadium or the downtown bars to cheer for their team. But the Canucks’ supporters are not much appreciated among the big community of hockey fans, because a little number of them have the reputation of losing their temper when their team loses. That is exactly what happened after the Vancouver Canucks lost the final on June 15^th, 2011. But in a dimension that nobody had imagined. > Click HERE to watch the video <

Angry fans started rioting all over the city center, cars were set on fire, shop windows were destroyed, people were hurt. In a few minutes, the city became what could be called a war zone. The police officers tried to do what they could to stop the violence, but the influence of anger and alcohol had for consequence that the rioters were completely out of control.

Vancouver on fire during the riots © Andrea Forrer

The day after, Vancouver looked like a battlefield that had seen many horrors. In order to be able to move forward after these dark hours, the residents of Vancouver decided to gather their forces and a big movement of solidarity was set up : some people were picking up the trash on the streets while the shop windows that had been destroyed were temporarily replaced by wooden boards.

The Vancouver Police Department, that had no intention to let the rioters continue their lives without punishment, imagined a new solution to find them. They created a website where they put the photos of the troublemakers, and included the citizens of Vancouver in the investigation, by asking them to help them identify the suspects. According to the statistics of the website, 1958 tips were given to the police through the Internet.

But the police was not the only one using social media to try to convict the rioters. Indeed, a Facebook group* was set up and even private people seeking for justice were working on it at home, with videos in which they encouraged people to “name the morons” they saw on their screen :

After acting in order to erase the bad memories from the streets of Vancouver by cleaning them up, the citizens started to write some words on the wooden boards that were momentarily replacing the shop windows : apologies, messages of love addressed to the Canucks, to the city of Vancouver, or simply to other people. Because this is how you act when you feel like you are part of this community. This is the true soul of Vancouver. This is the beauty of Canada.

Student healing Vancouver’s injuries © Keerati Ruenpanich

A famous drugstore says THANKS to the population © Andrea Forrer

Last week, the news came to our ears – through the Canadian media’s websites and Twitter accounts – that six more people had been charged in the case of the Stanley Cup’s riots. This is what happens when you hurt Vancouver. And that’s why I call it good news.

Fresh news : 6 more people charged

*check June 2011

Cloé Bernier

How the pictures you publish on Facebook can be used by advertising companies and journalists

• HOW THE PICTURES YOU PUBLISH ON FACEBOOK CAN BE USED BY ADVERTISING COMPANIES •

At the moment I’m writing, more than 800 million people are registrated on Facebook around the world, uploading 250 million of photos per day. By doing so, they are actually feeding one of the biggest databases in the world, and the least we can say is that this database is far from being the one protecting the content of what is posted on it. Indeed, when reading the Facebook’s Terms of Service (what we usually don’t do), we see that Facebook is appropriating itself all the rights on anything that is uploaded on the website.

Following these regulations, some rumors started to spread, mostly by wall posts. Here is what the main message said : “Facebook had agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures without your permission”. Does it mean that a coffee company for example could use a picture of a person drinking coffee to promote its product without their consent ? Barry Schmitt, manager of policy communications at Facebook, explained in a post of July 2009 that it was not the case, and that the companies who did it were violating the website’s policy and were required to remove their ads.

Source : Guhmshoo’s webpage

I have to say that I see a few problems here. First, the fact that this information have been disclaimed in 2009 and the rumor is still flowing in the end of 2011 shows that Facebook’s data protection policy’s credibility has been low for a certain time. Then, not only Facebook dispossesses people from their rights on their materials, but they are also totally unable to prevent external companies to use their image. Even if those are requested to remove the illegal ads, the damage is done, and depending on what their image has been used for, these people’s life can be affected to a high level.

Source : Guhmshoo’s webpage

I have to admit that it is difficult (or impossible) for Facebook to prevent people’s image to be used if they do not manage their privacy settings in order to hide their content to the public. But what about those who limit the access to their profile to their list of contacts only ? Are their pictures 100% safely stocked ? Why is Facebook dispossessing people from the rights they have on their photos if they assure they care about their privacy and don’t pass these rights on to anyone else ? There are too many shadow zones here. In my opinion, if Facebook was a secret agent, not only it would be a double one, but its cover would be shattered pretty fast.

• HOW THE PICTURES YOU PUBLISH ON FACEBOOK CAN BE USED BY JOURNALISTS •

Nowadays, Facebook is the gold mine of pictures databases, because people themselves are providing it with their personal materials. As journalists, we are aware that messages, news, articles are always more powerful with a picture to illustrate it. The era of digital media, has made it much easier to access and transmit all sorts of photos of anyone, from anywhere and in any kind of situation. Therefore, isn’t it tempting, when a person doesn’t want to give you a photo, or let you take a shot, to just screen their Facebook profile, or their friends’, in order to get one ? Would it be legal ?

Source : greatenjoy.com

In Switzerland, the Press Council had to deal with such a case. At the end, they declared that “in a social network such as Facebook, the communication is usually used for exchanging images and information between private people – even if it is partly accessible to everyone – and is mostly none of the public’s concern. Not because they publish something on Facebook means that people agree to make it accessible to the public.”

The problem here is that such a decision is not legally binding. Indeed, the Swiss Press Council is a structure that enables disputes related to journalism to be solved out of a court. Because they tacitly accept to be subject to its rules, journalists usually respect them and comply with the decisions of the Press Council. But what happens when they don’t ?

Source : tsrinfo.ch

At the end of November 2011, almost all the newspapers in the French speaking part of Switzerland published the picture of a teacher making a bad joke in front of the gate located at the entrance of the concentration camp of Auschwitz. In his mind, the aim of the shot was just to make his friends have a good laugh, but the consequence was that this man got fired of his job.

As journalists, we should think twice before using a picture taken from a private online page, because the consequences can be devastating. But as people, we should think even longer before posting it. Let’s protect ourselves from what Facebook is not able to.

Source : Dave Makes