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posted by chromas on Tuesday July 31 2018, @11:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the smells-like-teen-spirit-Nirvana dept.

Very fine Article at The Atlantic. Remember, think of the children, and comment responsibly.

It's harder and harder to have an honest debate on the internet. Social-media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook Groups are rife with trolls; forums are plagued by archaic layouts and spambots. Teenagers who are looking to talk about big issues face additional frustrations, like the fact that most adults on these platforms don't take them seriously.

Naturally, they've turned to Instagram. Specifically, they've turned to "flop" accounts—pages that are collectively managed by several teens, many of them devoted to discussions of hot-button topics: gun control, abortion, immigration, President Donald Trump, LGBTQ issues, YouTubers, breaking news, viral memes.

Just when I get a Facebook account, they have all moved!

The accounts post photos, videos, and screenshots of articles, memes, things, and people considered a "flop," or, essentially, a fail. A flop could be a famous YouTuber saying something racist, someone being rude or awful in person, a homophobic comment, or anything that the teen who posted it deems wrong or unacceptable. Some of the teens who run a given account know one another in real life; more likely, they met online.

Uh-oh, I am starting to suspect something.

"Flop accounts bring attention to bad things or bad people that people should be aware of. We also post cringeworthy content for entertainment purposes," said Alma, a 13-year-old admin on the flop account @nonstopflops.

According to teens, flop accounts began as a way to make fun of celebrities and popular YouTubers, but sometime over the past year they've morphed into something more substantive: a crucial way to share and discuss opinions online.

"Content [on flop accounts] is centralized around things that we think are factually or morally wrong, and it's how we critique them," said Taylor, a 15-year-old in Illinois who is an admin on a flop account. "Today, for instance, I posted a flop that was this lady making fun of someone for being homeless. That's a horrible thing to do."

Kids! Huh! What do they know?

The main thing teens who engage with flop accounts share is a strong distrust of the news media. Teens said they turned to flop accounts specifically because they didn't believe what they read in the news, saw on TV, or even were taught in their U.S.-history class, since, as one teen saw it, their teacher is just one person giving an opinion. Teen flop-account admins and followers said they found information on flop accounts to be far more reliable because it could be crowdsourced and debated.

Wow. Well. We just wait for the next generation, eh? Worked before. The barbarians actually cleaned up nicely.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:22AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:22AM (#715512) Journal

    http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations [dmlp.org]

    Eleven states require the consent of every party to a phone call or conversation in order to make the recording lawful. These "two-party consent" laws have been adopted in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. (Notes: (1) Illinois' two-party consent statute was held unconstitutional in 2014; (2) Hawai'i is in general a one-party state, but requires two-party consent if the recording device is installed in a private place; (3) Massachusetts bans "secret" recordings rather than requiring explicit consent from all parties.). Although they are referred to as "two-party consent" laws, consent must be obtained from every party to a phone call or conversation if it involves more than two people. In some of these states, it might be enough if all parties to the call or conversation know that you are recording and proceed with the communication anyway, even if they do not voice explicit consent. See the State Law: Recording section of this legal guide for information on specific states' wiretapping laws.

    Very few of these laws anymore, some with major caveats, and they will probably be ruled unconstitutional at some point.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:49AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @03:49AM (#715516)

    That's the first time I've seen someone question the constutionality, at least when cops are not involved.
      Meanwhile, people are making fun of crime victims. Given how these videos destroy people, I hope Massachusetts won't repeal the law.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @04:24AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday August 01 2018, @04:24AM (#715528) Journal

      If it's said or done out in public, no consent should be obtained. As for everywhere else, seems like the trend is against two-party consent, which is just fine with me.

      Even if these videos are illegal, good luck stopping them by setting an example of some kid. Kids are just going to record whatever, whenever. Silicon Valley has enabled that. If Eyeborgs ever catch on, then the trend will just accelerate.

      Meanwhile, people are making fun of crime victims. Given how these videos destroy people, I hope Massachusetts won't repeal the law.

      Am I supposed to read TFA to see these anecdotal examples or did you have some other incidents in mind? Well, it doesn't matter much. Come up with a narrower law to penalize beating your spouse or committing some other crime and uploading a recording of it online.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:20PM (1 child)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:20PM (#715623)

    California 53, Florida 27, Illinois 18, Pennsylvania 18, Washington 10, Massachusetts 9, Maryland 8, Connecticut 5 - over 1/3 of the national population right there...

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