DT104/HSS104A: Technology and Society2021

Group Activity: 4
Date: 14/12/2021

Storyboard 1

Although digitization of data increases equal opportunities, it poses many questions related to
discrimination, injustice in the use of big data technologies by government. There are data gaps,
data missing which largely affected India during COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about number of
migrants lives at risk, "the government informed Parliament that it has not maintained any data on
the number of migrant workers who died while trying to reach their homes after the nationwide
lockdown to combat the novel corona virus was announced"..."the Union Ministry for Labour and
Employment in a written reply said, "No such data is maintained", and that the answer to the
question on compensation "does not arise" since there is no data”.1
Group 1: Q. How will you analyse the politics of missing data in the story above.

Storyboard 2

In its best form, Twitter binds individuals and communities together and can facilitate communication
in support of democracy. However, that is often not the case. Rather than communicating in a way
that respects the differences of others while discussing ideas, “a substantial share of social media
users feel these platforms are uniquely angry and disrespectful venues for engaging in political
debate.” In fact, Jodie Nicotra’s analysis of public shaming events finds that Twitter’s structure makes
it the “perfect environment for public shaming.” This shaming occurs in the form of racism, sexism,
homophobia, etc. While this may allow some users to feel comfortable or justified in their expressions,
others believe that the “rhetoric of free speech is being abused in order to shut down dissent and
facilitate bigotry.” These examples of shaming and harassment are not isolated. In fact, the situation
deteriorated to the point that in 2016, Twitter, a company that had repeatedly stuck to its belief in
“free speech,” began using tools to curb rampant hate speech and harassment"2

Group 2:Q. If you are a technology policy expert, how will you propose to weigh the trade-off
between free speech and democratic principles?

Storyboard 3

“The phenomenon of the data-driven city has materialized as a result of the emergence of big data
science and computing and the wider adoption of the underlying technologies, the explosive growth
of urban data, and the transformation of urban landscape in the light of urbanization"......" For
example, Nikitin et al. [163] use a notion which embraces the basic elements used in the management
of the data-driven city, namely data, processing technologies, and government agencies in regard to
such domains as transport, utilities, environment, healthcare, education, citizen participation, and
security. Accordingly, the authors describe the data-driven city as a city that is characterized by the
ability of city management agencies to use technologies for data generation, processing, and analysis
aimed at the adoption of solutions for improving the living standards of citizens thanks to the
development of social, economic and ecological areas of urban environment. Overall, the data-driven
city is digitally instrumented, datafied, and networked for enabling large-scale computation to

1
https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/migrant-workers-deaths-govt-says-it-has-no-data-but-didn-t-
people-die-here-is-a-list-1722087-2020-09-16, https://www.fordfoundation.org/just-matters/just-
matters/posts/how-government-use-of-big-data-can-harm-communities/ last accessed on 09.12.2021
2
Refer to this article: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&context=taboo last
accessed on 09.12.2021
DT104/HSS104A: Technology and Society2021
Group Activity: 4
Date: 14/12/2021

enhance decision making processes across various urban domains for enhancing and optimizing
operational management and planning development in line with the environmental, economic, and
social aspects of sustainability."3

Group 3: Q. Will data-driven cities and sustainable cities always be contradictory constructs?

Storyboard 4

Group 6: Q: Take 3 instances of non-use of 3 different technologies from your everyday experience.
Explain how each of these instances is a case of non-use and how it may inform technology design
principle

Storyboard 5

“Denial of data breach by LinkedIn: "Our teams have investigated a set of alleged LinkedIn data that
has been posted for sale. We want to be clear that this is not a data breach and no private LinkedIn
member data was exposed. Our initial investigation has found that this data was scraped from
LinkedIn and other various websites and includes the same data reported earlier this year in our April
2021 scraping update. Members trust LinkedIn with their data, and any misuse of our members’ data,
such as scraping, violates LinkedIn terms of service. When anyone tries to take member data and use
it for purposes LinkedIn and our members haven’t agreed to, we work to stop them and hold them
accountable"- LinkedIn Corporate Communications. There are many examples of data breaches
affecting millions of users at a time by exposing various personal information, bank details etc,. Not
only media platforms, our dependency on mobile payments had also increased but the questions of
liability issues remains unanswered with numerous misdirected payments and unauthorized access
transactions.”4

Group 5: Q. Is data breach a technical problem or a social problem or an ethical problem?

Storyboard 6

“Professor Safiya Noble explains in her book ' Algorithms of Oppression' the biases against women
and people of colour which are embedded in search engine results and algorithms. Other research
also shows internet content is mutually-reinforced, 'UN special reporter on the promotion and
protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye warns that because artificial
intelligence (AI) can personalize what users see online, AI “may reinforce biases and incentivize the
promotion and recommendation of inflammatory content or disinformation in order to sustain users’
online engagement.” In other words, search engine content can be shaped by public biases and may
reinforce biases by rebounding them as search results that 73 percent of users believe to be accurate
and trustworthy”.5

Group 6: Q: How will you analyse the mutual shaping of the technology and society in the above
instance?

3
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S266618882100006X?token=A1B5063A607FD2D92356D547D5F2D
873A95CBC5C29D0622645B3528B25380CDBC51BAB3BABC8BFEEDF61503D57A47EA9&originRegion=eu-west-
1&originCreation=20211209061111 last accessed on 09.12.2021
4
https://news.linkedin.com/2021/june/an-update-from-linkedin last accessed on 09.12.2021
5
https://www.cfr.org/blog/gender-bias-inside-digital-revolution-digital-human-rights last accessed on
09.12.2021