We investigate one of the most popular companies on the planet. Facebook may know more about us than any organisation in history. It makes a fortune from advertising using our personal information. And politicians are now using our data to target us too. Panorama: What Facebook Knows About You, BBC 2017
It’s quietly become an important political player. ibid.
It’s the social media sensation of lockdown targeted at teens. It says its mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy, and though it clearly can, can Tiktok be putting some users at risk? … How safe is Tiktok? Panorama: Is Tik-Tok Safe? BBC 2020
From the elderly residents of a care home in Yorkshire to A-list celebrities. ibid.
The fastest growing social media platform of all time. ibid.
How social media can turn toxic for women. From reality TV stars to politicians, women are getting more and more online hate. Panorama: Online Abuse, BBC 2021
The Cloud. It’s changed the world by helping us live online. But what’s the Cloud doing to the planet? We investigate the new environmental threat we all help create. Panorama: Is the Cloud Damaging the Planet? BBC 2023
The Cloud is the vast network of computers that stores our data and helps make the internet work. ibid.
It needs vast amounts of power and water. ibid.
At full capacity, the data centre uses the same amount of electricity as more than 100,000 homes. ibid.
The rise of online shopping ... would change the face of our high streets ... The internet would change everything. Robert Peston Goes Shopping III, BBC 2013
An ‘orange’ is a go-between, a medium who can put living people in touch with their alter egos in the cyber world. More parochially, the orange’s job is to turn stolen virtual money into hard cash. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Among the most successful email-borne viruses of all time was the I Love You virus, an assertion that brings out the irrational in even the most urbane among us. ibid.
Darknet is a set of IPs [Internet Protocols] that have never been addressed – they were never assigned anywhere. ibid.
Now cyber criminals are writing specific malware designed to attack a single company. ibid.
Russia and Brazil are world-beaters in electronic crime. Along with China, they form the top tier. ibid.
No other sector of organised crime can match the growth rates of cyber-crime. ibid.
Information is the currency of the Internet. As a medium, the Internet is brilliantly efficient at shifting information from the hands of those who have it into the hands of those who do not … It has vastly shrunk the gap between the experts and the public. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics
We know at least forty-five cases whereby the Internet has played a significant role in the death of somebody. Paul Kelly, Papyrus, Suicide Prevention Charity
One of the reasons why I think people have gone from reading mainstream newspapers to the Internet is because they realize they’re being lied to. Robert Fisk
It’s just twenty-five years since the worldwide web was created … It’s now caught in the greatest controversy of its life: surveillance. Inside the Dark Web, BBC 2014
Thanks to a new digital currency this new technology is sending law-makers into a panic due to the growth of a new black market in the dark web. ibid.
Tapping the wires is surprisingly simple. The data carried by the fire-optic cable just needs to be diverted … and that’s just what GCHQ did. ibid.
Watching isn’t just done by governments; the most detailed documenting our lives is done by technology companies. ibid.
Silk Road and its imitators difficult to stop: you paid with a new currency that only exists online. ibid.
So is anonymity a genuine threat to society? ibid.
This is the story of the internet pioneer you’ve never heard of: Josh Harris. We Live in Public, 2008
In 1984 John Harris arrived in New York City with only 900 dollars in his pocket determined to make his mark in the tech world. He got a job … He made his money when Jupiter went public. ibid.
The world-wide web appeared in 1991 and by 1994 there were 100,000 websites. It spread like wildfire. By 1996 the first web browser went public and doubled in its first day of trading. ibid.
‘We’re in the business of programming people’s lives.’ ibid.
Josh brought in well-respected artists from around the globe to help him build his underground society. ibid.
‘When migrants were blocking the road in Calais in France I wrote, Just run the fuckers over.’ The Internet Warriors, internet troll, 2017
Who are the people who spend their lives debating online and when did the discourse become so polarised? Why do so many use the internet to threaten, harass, and stretch freedom of speech to its limits? And are they as angry in person as they are online? ibid.
‘It [Islam] has the same agenda as Hitler.’ ibid. troll
‘I hope Isis kill David Cameron.’ ibid. troll
‘Fuck you Obama u worthless motherfucker! ibid. troll
‘… Have successfully tapped in to the nuclear weapons research laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico …’ The 414s: The Original Teenage Hackers, Youtube 11 mins, 2015
1983 Milwaukee, Wisconsin: In the summer of 1983 the group’s exploits intensified. ibid.
Since Neal was a minor he faced no threat of federal prosecution. He made the media rounds while the others awaited their punishment. Because laws against computer crimes didn’t yet exist the legal adults in the group were charged with ‘making harassing phone calls’. Later that year six computer hacking bills were introduced in the House. They are still on the books to this day. ibid.
How do we keep it running? How do we guard it? … The directory might be some 72 miles thick. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, 2017
Today the sheer numbers of unpredictable players on the internet has led to some of its greatest glories. ibid.
In South Korea teenage video-gamers put on diapers; this way they avoid losing points by going to the bathroom. ibid.
Two teenage boys living ordinary lives in an ordinary suburb of Manchester. But beneath the surface their friendship is anything but ordinary. It leads them into a world of intrigue, deception, betrayal, a world of glamorous secret agents and deadly forfeits, a world from which the only escape is that one of the boys murder his best friend. Psycho: Kill Me If You Can, Channel 4 2005
Mark’s explanation: he’s an agent from the British secret service codename 407695: he told them he’d been recruited by a spy-mistress over the internet and instructed to kill his friend. ibid.
Mark was using the chatroom to make new friends in the Manchester area. ibid.
Even though Mark only had Rachel’s words to go on he declared his love for her across the chatroom. ibid.
At first nobody in the chatroom believed that Kevin really was a gay stalker … Kevin emailed Mark saying that he’d kidnapped his virtual girlfriend Rachel … Kevin announced that he’d released Rachel as promised … Rachel stopped communicating altogether. ibid.
16-year-old Mark and 14-year-old John were becoming best friends. ibid.
She [Janet] made him swear an oath [to the Queen] across the chatroom. ibid.
Mark … received his final instructions from Janet … to terminate James Bell – his friend John. ibid.
Mark takes out the knife: he drive it deep into John’s stomach; as he does so he tells John that he loves him. ibid.
Mark only had one – when was Janet going to turn up? ibid.
All the characters were in fact invented by the same person: whoever it was, they had incited John’s murder … The police finally had a suspect – John. ibid.
May 31 2014 Waukesha, Wisconsin: ‘He came across a 12-year-old female: she appears to have been stabbed.’ Beware the Slenderman, rozzers, Sky Atlantic 2017
‘A major search by ground and by air looking for two other girls – Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser are accused of stabbing their friend and leaving her for dead.’ ibid. news report
‘Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser were found walking near the Interstate – they later told police they planned to walk to Slenderman’s mansion.’ ibid.
Morgan Geyser: ‘I didn’t want to do this. Because I was afraid of what would happen if I didn’t.’ ibid. rozzers’ interview
Morgan and Anissa are both charged with attempted first degree murder. ibid. caption
‘We didn’t want to go, we didn’t want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time …’ ibid. screen-name Victor Surge posted 10th June 2009
‘Slenderman is the grim reaper but with a heart.’ ibid. folklorist