Experts to Melania Trump: You Are Not the ‘Most Bullied Person in the World’
by Emily Shugerman
On her recent swing through Africa, between visits with dignitaries and photo-ops in front of the Great Sphinx, First Lady Melania Trump declared that she could be “the most bullied person in the world.”
To experts who study bullying and work to prevent it, the suggestion was absurd.
“It’s really crazy to say that she is being bullied,” said Fred Rivara, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and expert on child bullying. For an interaction to meet the threshold of bullying, he explained, it must involve an imbalance of power.
“The big thing here with Melania Trump is she’s the one in power,” Rivara said. “Her husband is the president of the United States. So how can she say that she’s bullied?”
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Why Instagram’s New Anti-Bullying Filtering Is So Dangerous
by Kalev Leetaru
On Tuesday Instagram announced its latest round of anti-bullying tools, extending its previous focus on textual comments to new computer vision algorithms allegedly able to detect “bullying” in photographs themselves. In typical fashion, Facebook announced the new features out of the blue without consultation with its broader user community and provided no detail beyond the vague statement that it was relying on “machine learning technology to proactively detect bullying in photos and their captions.” While the company offered that images would still be subject to human review prior to removal, such machine-assisted review workflows typically devolve over time into humans merely rubber stamping the algorithmic output to meet ever-increasing quota requirements and as their blind trust in the machine solidifies. What does Facebook’s new initiative tell us about how the future of the web is increasingly being blindly entrusted to opaque black boxes with no oversight and no insight into how they function?
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Sources: Complaints about bullying in Va. state agency have been ignored
By PATRICK WILSON
Complaints about bullying and workplace harassment within the state Department of Social Services Division of Child Support Enforcement headquarters have been ignored within the agency, according to six sources with knowledge of the issue.
The sources spoke to the Richmond Times-Dispatch independently on condition of anonymity because they fear job loss or a threat to their careers.
The sources said the complaints were recently taken to Commissioner S. Duke Storen, who oversees DSS, because the complaints have gone unresolved. Multiple sources said a contractor was recently fired about 10 days after making a complaint with human resources about workplace harassment.
Craig Burshem, a deputy commissioner with DSS who oversees the Division of Child Support Enforcement, did not respond to a voicemail and email for this story.
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