User:Tash/grad testplay

Test Play 1: March 2019

Introduction

Reading: on current censorship trends online

• Delbert, R. (2008) Black Code Redux: Censorship, Surveillance, and the Militarization of Cyberspace. In: Boler, M. (ed.) Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• Scott, M. (2018) ‘Welcome to new era of global digital censorship’. [online] Politico. Available at: https://www.politico.eu/article/google-facebook-twitter-censorship-europe-commission-hate-speech-propaganda-terrorist/ [Accessed: 02 Feb. 2019]
• Siddharta, A. (2017) ‘Indonesian TV censorship: cartoons cut, athletes blurred as conservative Islam asserts itself and broadcasters fear sanctions’ [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2126007/indonesian-tv-censorship-cartoons-cut-athletes-blurred-conservative [Accessed: 20 Jan. 2019]

Reading: on the impact of trolls & paid propaganda on social media

• Lim, M. (2017) ‘Freedom to hate: social media, algorithmic enclaves, and the rise of tribal nationalism in Indonesia.’ Critical Asian Studies, 49(3): 411-427.
• https://decoders.amnesty.org/projects/troll-patrol/findings
• Juniarto, D. (2018) ’The Muslim Cyber Army: what is it and what does it want?’ [online] University of Melbourne. Available at: http://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/the-muslim-cyber-army-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-want/ [Accessed: 02 Feb. 2019]
• Sanfilippo, M. & Fichman, P. (2015) The Bad Boys and Girls of Cyberspace: How Gender and Context Impact Perception of and Reaction to Trolling. Social Science Computer Review 2015, Vol. 33(2) 163-180.

Examples of hostile social media spaces

• walk through some examples of hostile social media accounts and hashtags
• read https://pad.xpub.nl/p/deletecomment

Terms & definitions

• Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. This practice is about producing 'fake' or 'artificial' support.

• Trolling is a mischievous / deviant activity which involves starting quarrels or upsetting people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community.

• Flame bait is a message posted to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument over a topic the "troll" (original poster provoking angry response) often has no real interest in, and finds humour, or entertainment in reactions.

• Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send an unsolicited message (spam), especially advertising, as well as sending messages repeatedly on the same site.

• Disinformation campaigns the deliberate spreading of fake news items or misleading information in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.

• Fact-checking is the process of attempting to verify or disprove assertions made in an article, post or news item.

• Counterspeech is the practice of responding directly to hateful or harmful speech in an attempt to defuse or undermine it. Strategies include shaming and labeling, distraction, reinforcing common goals instead of differences, and warning of consequences.

• Doxing (from dox, abbreviation of documents) or doxxing, is the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifiable information (especially personally identifiable information) about an individual or organization.

• Scambaiting is the activity of posing as a potential victim to a scammer in order to waste their time and resources, gather information, and publicly expose them.

• Swatting is the harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police and emergency service response team to another person's address.

• Troll-hunting is the practice of identifying and exposing trolls, or so-called sockpuppet accounts.

• Bot-hunting is the practice of identifying and exposing automated bots.

• Hashtag-jacking is the practice of appropriating and undermining an offensive hashtag, by flooding it with confrontational or opposing material.

• Geotag-jacking is the practice of appropriating and undermining a geolocation tag related to an offensive figure or organisation, by flooding it with confrontational or opposing material.

• Lulz an internet-based term for fun, laughter or amusement, especially at someone else's expense.

• Sockpuppet is an artificial online identity used for purposes of deception.

The Game

Live Action Instagram RPG

Knowing that social media functions by amplifying some voices while suppressing others, this interactive game will ask you to rethink your own relation to the medium. Like the practices of 'counterspeech' or 'contra-internet', it suggests new ways to talk back to social media spaces which have become especially hostile towards women. Through the performance and labour of roleplay, you are invited to critically explore this setting, and vicariously engage with its mechanisms and 'players'.

Unlike Gamification, which is the application of game-design elements to non-game contexts, this project relies on the already-existing gaming mechanisms in social media culture. As such, it is not the creation of a new game – but simply an invitation to play differently.

What you need

• Laptop & smartphone
• Internet connection
• Gameplay cards

Rules

• Always begin & end the game together
• Always play in teams of 2 or more
• Stay in character until further instruction
• Always follow back users who follow you
• Always screenshot your engagements in order of play
• Always tag / mention the game's main profile in your posts & comments, this way we can document your actions @raksasi1
• After the game, decide together whether to kill / donate the profile

How to play
In groups of two or more, create fake identities and profiles on Instagram. Picking up cards from a deck, perform the actions on the card. Document the engagement you receive. More attention = more points. The team with the most points after 10 rounds, wins.

Steps

1. Divide into teams of 2.
   
   
2. Each time picks up one character card. Discuss, in your teams, what your target and mission is.
   
   
3. Create a new mail account with a free, secure service like Protonmail. All you need is a username & password.
   
   
4. Open Instagram, and select: Add Account > Sign Up with email
   
   
5. Set a username and password that cannot be traced back to you. Do not connect any of your personal accounts or contacts to the profile.
   
   
6. Decide if you want a public or private profile. Turn off 'Hide offensive comments' in Settings > Privacy & Security > Comment Controls
   
   
7. Set up your profile (what is your profile pic? who do you follow? what is in your bio? whose voice are you representing?).
   
   
8. Once everyone is ready, we exchange handles, and all profiles follow the primary game profile. @raksasi1
   
   
9. Before we play the first round, each team is given a set of 4 "Gardening cards". These may be employed only once, and in place of picking up an action card.
   – Gardening card 1: Call allies to a conversation
   – Gardening card 2: Call 1 ally to a conversation
   – Gardening card 3: Maintain a conversation
   – Gardening card 4: Skip action (this one can be employed after picking up an action card)
   
   
10. Picking up cards from two decks, each team then completes 5 actions:
    – Pick up action card + channel card
    – Perform the chosen action on the chosen channel
    – Make screenshot
    – Save post to own archive
    Always tag @raksasi1 in your comments and posts!
    
    
11. At the end of 5 rounds, do one round of evaluation and discussion.
    
    
12. Picking up cards, each team then completes another 5 actions
    
    
13. Final round of evaluation, count points and decide on fate of accounts
    
    

Point System

• For every follower at end of game: 1 point
• For every like on comments or posts: 2 points
• For every flagged comment or post: 4 points
• For every DM received: 3 points
• For every reply to a comment or post: 2 points