Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Data Protection and Cyber-Security 2013 - Essay Example What has made this a possibility is the improvement in the communication technologies and mediums. The social media has been the best hit. Over the past, the social media has realized great developments which have made it easier to communicate and build a network of people from all over the world. Because of this, just as Bishop J. implies on increasing online communities, millions of people who were once not interested in social network development have now diverted to the same and joined the booming social platforms.1 These developments have seen emergence of many social media platforms and chat rooms that people are now free to join for a chance to connect with both known and unknown people from every location of the world, thanks to the internet. Social chat-rooms like twitter and Facebook are just but examples of the freely available social platforms. The development in the social media has come at a price that the society has dearly paid in the past years. The adoption of digit al communication done through the social platforms has, over the past, paved way for many instances of the violation of many UK laws that govern the privacy of information and human rights. There have been several instances where people have used the various social platforms to pass messages that either violates human rights or laws governing the country. Twitter, a prominent social media website, has been used by various people to relay criminal tweets which have affected the public by a great deal. The government has been trying to control the information passed through the social media. As outlined by Bishop, various laws and regulations have been made to prevent people from posting offensive messages that might have adverse effects on the public.2 Contrary to what should happen, people who post criminal and offensive messages on these social platforms have, in the past, made away with the offenses. For instance, law enforcers now say that offensive comments that are posted on tw itter and Facebook rarely lead to charges unless they also include eminent threats and/or even lead to harassment campaigns. This and many past events has seen the government unable to curtail the harms caused by various social media offensive messages hence clearly showing that the law is unclear and ineffective in addressing the social media offenses. This has come along with mixed reactions from people who are now left with question that tends to explain whether the social media is really effective in controlling the digital content. The numbers of offensive messages which are posted on twitter and Facebook among others have been on the rise lately. Estimates now show that millions of messages are sent within a single day. The most surprising part is that this is a statistic for only twitter with other social websites not considered. A large number of the messages which are sent daily are offensive and pose threats to the public. What has made this a significant threat is that th e messages, which are initially only meant for a particular person or group, may eventually end up reaching millions of people worldwide. According to the U.K director of public prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer QC., many people who post criminal messages online may go uncharged. This he says happens since the