Distress of TikTok fake school accounts
TikTok School challenge β whatβs happening and whatβs being done. Twitter disinformation campaign in Kenya and the lack of diversity in the AI workforce across the world.
TikTok School challenge
Itβs November so school children in the US are being encouraged to βKiss your friendβs girlfriend at schoolβ. In September the TikTok school challenge suggested they βVandalize the restroomβ. These are just two of the examples that schools in the US have been dealing with following a call on TikTok to pupils. Now in the UK teachers are facing an onslaught of online abuse via TikTok too. Headteacher Sarah Raffray, who is also the Chair of the Society of Heads in the UK, is live on the show. The fake account created at her school has been removed by TikTok as have hundreds of others, but is the social media platform doing enough to control this libellous behaviour?
Disinformation campaign in Kenya
The Pandora papers revealed that Kenyaβs President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family have offshore accounts containing $30m. Following the release of this information a collaborative disinformation campaign manipulating Twitterβs algorithms was launched attempting to exonerate the President. Odanga Madung is a Mozilla fellow and is on the programme to discuss a report heβs co-authored βHow to Manipulate Twitter and Influence People: Propaganda and the Pandora Papers in Kenyaβ. So far 400 accounts have been deleted, but with elections next year this campaign could already be influencing the outcome.
AI (lack of) diversity in the workforce
Research from the Digital Planet team at Tuftβs University has examined the world's top AI hubs and ranked them in terms of diversity. Bhaskar Chakravorti, who led the team behind the work, tells us that San Francisco has the lowest proportion of black AI talent in the US. When it comes to the proportion of women in the field, AI is much less diverse than the industry overall. 17 percent of the AI talent pool in the 50 hotspots in the world is female as compared to 27 percent in STEM overall. Tel Aviv comes out on top globally for employing women in AI. We discuss how this imbalance is impacting AI development.
The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.
Studio Manager: John Boland
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz
(Image: TikTok logo displayed on a smart phone.
Credit: Illustration by Nikolas Joao Kokovlis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Tue 16 Nov 2021 20:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview, Online & Europe and the Middle East only
- Tue 16 Nov 2021 21:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia, South Asia, News Internet & East Asia only
- Wed 17 Nov 2021 04:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Australasia, South Asia & East Asia only
- Wed 17 Nov 2021 05:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Wed 17 Nov 2021 09:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Wed 17 Nov 2021 13:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa, East Asia, South Asia & West and Central Africa
- Wed 17 Nov 2021 18:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 20 Nov 2021 17:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service News Internet
- Sun 21 Nov 2021 12:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 22 Nov 2021 00:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
Podcast
-
Digital Planet
Technological and digital news from around the world.