Social Intelligence Stories that Caught Our Attention: Volume Twenty-Two

In this week’s roundup we have, social media data predicting our death, Pulsar's £4.5m acquisition, Career Porn and burnout, Instagram picture shame, the easy spread of disinformation as-a-service, analytics not needing that much data, and the EU ruling to force Facebook to remove posts.

Can Social Media Predict When You’ll Die?

A little morbid, but Nextgov asks if social media can predict when you’ll die. They reference an article from Facebook about an algorithm that can predict major life changes, including death. The article includes a video from Elaine Nsoesie, where she digs into whether it is feasible for social data to tell us when we’ll die.  Would you want to know?

Read the full article here.

Pulsar Acquired by Access Intelligence

After a partnership deal with Sermo was announced a couple of weeks ago, Pulsar is back in the news after being acquired by Access Intelligence.  Pulsar was acquired for £4.5 million.

Read the full article here.

#CareerPorn and the Fast-Track to Burnout

This is a great piece on how the way we talk about work on social media might actually fuel burnout and a kind of work ‘fear of missing out’.  Have you been feeling this way from the #MondayMotivtion, #GirlBoss or other work-related hashtags?

Read the full article here.

Company Shamed an Applicant for Her Instagram Picture

After encouraging applicants to follow the company’s Instagram age for a better chance of being hired, the company proceeded to screenshot a photo of an intern applicant wearing a bathing suit by a pool with the caption – “I am looking for a professional marketer – not a bikini model”.

When the applicant privately messages the company asking them to take the photo down, they responded with “best of luck” and blocked her. This is an interesting case of making inferences about a person from their photos – how many times do we do this when analyzing visual content? I think that more formal training in semiotics may be needed.

Read the full article here.

Disinformation as a Service Crosses Borders with Ease

A recent report from the security firm Recorded Future documents tow campaigns that it paid Russian-speaking, dark web propagandists-for-hire to run. After doing this they realized how easy it is to buy disinformation as a service, and national boundaries and linguist barriers did not hinder the campaign.

Read the full article here.

Most Analytics Projects Don’t Require that Much Data

Probably not that shocking to those of us who analyze social data, but a recent HBR article discusses how most analytics projects don’t require that much data. There’s been a preoccupation with collecting data, all the data – it is the new oil after all. The more experienced of us know better – that we need the right data and the right metrics and models to measure it.

Read the full article here.

EU Court Rules Countries Can Force Facebook to Remove Posts

Across at Forbes, Lisette Voytko reports that the EU’s highest court ruled Thursday that Facebook can be forced to take down posts and restrict access to them across the world, setting precedent for content policing on the social network and other internet platforms.

Read the full article here.

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