Social Media

Saudi social media users break silence on violence against women

The hashtag #Break_Your_Silence_Speak_Up went viral among Saudi women who started sharing their bitter stories that often go untold.

One woman said that she has been locked up for a year inside the house after her mother learned that her father had raped her over three years. She now needs to be treated for depression as a result of the psychological damage she endured.

Is your child a cyberbully and if so, what should you do?

That was the question posed by a BBC reader, following a report on how children struggle to cope online.

There is plenty of information about how to deal with cyberbullies, but far less about what to do if you find out that your own child is the source.

The BBC took advice from experts and a mother who found out her daughter had been cyberbullying her school friends.

 

The parent's view

Act will not censor social media: NICTA

Charles Punaha, the National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) CEO, said the Act, passed by Parliament in 2016, will not be a form of censorship on mainstream and social media. 

“We respect freedom of information and speeches as provided for under the Constitution, but let me also specify that those freedom are referred to by law as qualified rights, meaning that people should not abuse those freedom to commit (crimes) against other people,” Punaha said. 

Students' 'build a wall' chant goes viral

Shot in a school cafeteria at Royal Oak Middle School, just outside Detroit, you can hear seventh grade students shouting, "Build a wall! Build a wall!" the day after Donald Trump won the presidency.

The chant matches what many of Donald Trump's supporters yelled throughout the presidential campaign whenever the Republican candidate, at rallies, promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Viral support for meme victim hitting back at body-shamers

Lizzie Velasquez is a motivational speaker who has given TED talks and has thousands of followers.

She was born with a rare, inherited condition which means her body is unable to store fat.

"I'm writing this post not as someone who is a victim but as someone who is using their voice.

"No matter what we look like or what size we are, at the end of the day we are all human," she wrote on Instagram.

As well as Lizzie, other memes feature plus-size women, older people and those with a disfigurement.

Yahoo flaw allowed hackers to read anyone's emails

Jouko Pynnönen, a Finnish Security researcher from security firm Klikki Oy, reported a DOM based persistent XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) in Yahoo mail, which if exploited, allows an attacker to send emails embedded with malicious code.
In his blog post published today, the researcher demonstrated how a malicious attacker could have sent the victim's inbox to an external site, and created a virus that attached itself to all outgoing emails by secretly adding a malicious script to message signatures.

An American university is sending students acceptance Snapchats

Now, as well as posting an acceptance package, the University of Wisconsinin Green Bay will snap the good news too.

It says it's just keeping up with the times and it means potential students get the message much quicker.

"They'll definitely get their snap before they get their mail pack," says Admissions Officer, Katelyn Santy.

"Students get their snaps pretty immediately because it's a place where they are.

"They spend a lot of time there," she told WCMH-TV news.

Trump's win smashes social media records

Tens of millions of people shared their views on Twitter and Facebook during Election Day, a level of interaction that shattered existing records for political discussion.

Twitter (TWTRTech30) said that more than 75 million tweets related to the election had been sent by 3 am ET on Wednesday, the moment Trump claimed victory.

That's far more than the 31 million messages sent on Election Day in 2012.

Can social media be used to predict election results?

After Hillary Clinton had led throughout most of the campaign, she was also ahead in the BBC poll of polls on Tuesday with 48% of the votes to Donald Trump's 44%.

Number cruncher Nate Silver, of statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight, wrote that morning that Mrs Clinton had a 71.4% chance of winning.

Five pictures that show how social media can be a minefield

Here five BBC reporters - all women - explain how the photographs below would be perceived in their countries.

Cuddling up

Alma Hassoun (Syria): Pictures of couples cuddling up in public do not usually appear on Facebook. The girl is the one who worries about posting such a photo. This is mainly because if the relationship does not last, photos that indicate a previous relationship with another man might not be socially tolerated. We should remember that family members and neighbours are on the friends' list.