Google bans political dialogue on inner mailing lists

Davis (1999) found from his seminal study of Usenet that individuals engaging in on-line political newsgroup dialogue tended to “gravitate to teams agreeing with their own views.” [5] Davis concluded that “Usenet discussion should be considered for what it is — a means for reinforcing preexisting views quite than a virtual group where folks can freely express their differing views with each other … .” [6] Thus, on-line communities could serve to insulate teams from those with whom they disagree. Evidence pointing to the potential of social community websites to serve in the area of political dialogue is emerging, indicating a necessity for additional exploration into the political aspects of social network websites corresponding to Facebook. For instance, a survey performed throughout Spring 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project discovered that 10 p.c of all Americans who use social community sites use them “for some sort of political activity.” [2] The report states that, of adults under 30 who have a social community profile, half use social community sites “to get or share information about the candidates and the marketing campaign.” [3] A prior research by Pew carried out in December 2007 discovered that seven p.c of all respondents and 27 p.c of young adults reported utilizing social community websites to get details about the 2008 Presidential election marketing campaign (Kohut, 2008). Comparison of these studies demonstrates the growing political use of social network sites over the course of some months, particularly within the lives of young … Read More

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