Dark Social: a panic from the Whatsapp Chat

There is a phenomenon that connects the yellow to the West, in France, the election victory of the extreme right-wing Congressman Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential elections in Brazil and the class chat of children of their own with each other: The phenomenon is called "Dark Social" and found so far, not only because of its gloomy Name little attention in the Public. It is the buzzword for those from the outside, barely-visible Form of Internet Traffic generated through personal E-Mails, closed groups in social networks or Messenger services such as Whatsapp or Telegram.

These channels are considered to be "dark" because website operators can not see where the visitors to your pages, if you have clicked in these private spaces on a single Link. "Dark Social" has been used as a tag for the first time in the year 2012 of the American journalist Alexis C. Madrigal – as a counter-concept to the visible Traffic, the website operator to see when users do a Google search to a page, or because you clicked for example on Twitter on a single Link.

Since 2012, there has been much discussion on Twitter and Facebook, and their effect on the public debate. The proportion of the dark traffic is increased, the well-known according to studies, enormously, without that it would have drawn greater attention. There are many indications that the importance of Dark Social will continue to increase. This at first glance harmless-looking Form of personal communication is to a socio-political challenge.

The reason for this is that the ratio of Public and private spheres changed in the Web. Because of the exchange of information and Links in personal messages is so important because it takes place practically under the exclusion of what is regarded as a classic of the Public. In the dark channels there are, even in highly political topics that are barely visible, political actors, people with a different opinion or even political debates. There the user write in the first line with a trusted neighbors or politically like-minded people. This is a personal exchange, feels never to the Public. And yet these messages and Chats to powerful tools, become of public communication.

you to be worn embassies and left more like a cold virus in the cold time. Anyone who has been infected, you can be to the transmitter, which infects about his football group or the class to chat to the children of others. None of the triggers alone, a wave of Flu, but everyone contributes to. Unlike the public and often as the paid highlighted posts in open social networks, the "dark" widespread on the left, and messages are all private, and therefore very credible. Many people think that What comes from a friend who is trustworthy. This trend of social media is amplified in the private rooms.

tips: how to get more out of Whatsapp and co. How to make it faster and easier to correspond and ensure that your stay conversations private. Video: Matthias Schüssler

That part of a blind trust can lead to problems, Munich is noted in the night of the killing spree from the Olympia shopping centre, in the many rumors about Chats and private groups have been widely used. Panic arose in the city, which even for users with dark side of Social Media is open: The channels can put the forces and dynamics that are extremely powerful.

This dynamic has led that day to panic, and without someone controlled. Meanwhile, many groups and organizations specifically for their purposes. Some of the so-called Influencer, for example, groups in the Telegram, in order to make your posts on Instagram, quickly became popular: they have each other to new and then click as quickly as possible to "like", the algorithm of the photo service to take advantage of.

Brazil's policy had a Whatsapp Problem

But also political communication, in the meantime, with the help of private Chats. The advent of the yellow West-movement to have been organised on a considerable scale by private groups on Facebook, in which private neighborhoods.

The best inoculation against false messages in certain channels is to Think and just share what you do not know myself exactly.

large parts of the Brazilian presidential election campaign should have been conducted on the in the country extremely popular service Whatsapp. In any case, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo revealed that the now-law selected national candidate Jair Bolsonaro is said to have commissioned several agencies to post false messages in the channels of Whatsapp. Whatsapp only responded slowly to the rapidly-spreading false reports and was a lot of criticism. It is the Problem for classical control instances of public communication: These channels are hard to control visible from the outside and hardly. Whatsapp has no insight into the Chats of its users, as they are highly encrypted.

Much will be a debate about the debates-culture on Twitter, Facebook faces public criticism for its poor protection of user data, and the lack of willingness to delete the wrong messages in the network. In contrast, criticism of Facebook's subsidiary, Whatsapp remained in this country, almost unheard of. The company introduced in the summer of the "Forwarded"note, to make visible, if the messages and Links are easy enough for just a Chat in the next. The user should not know that this message was made by hand by a well-Known typed, but he has done so. This new Feature is also to be seen as a response to the growing socio-political Problem of Dark Social. Critics doubt, however, that the note is not sufficient, the dissemination of false reports about Chats and private messages to contain. to find

solutions, you need first of all to all the political levels, there is a broader understanding that Social Media is more than just the public dispute on Twitter, but also the Dark-Social-contributions in Messenger services. On the personal level, Users need to develop and awareness of the impact of their seemingly casual messages and chain letters in private Chats in the sum. Because, as in the case of a flu wave, it plays at the end of a part in how each Individual behaves. The best inoculation against false messages in certain channels is to Think and just share what you do not know myself exactly. (Tages-Anzeiger)

Created: 18.01.2019, 21:25 PM