Week5 Digital Citizenship 1: Political Engagement
Ohhh no politics. Yikes. The area where I spend very minimum attention to. But it could be kind of interesting and funny (I think tho and some base on the memes). Why donât we start, shall we?
Political behavior is traditionally defined as an âactivity that has the intent or effect of influencing government actionâ either directly by affecting the making or implementation of public policy or indirectly by influencing the selection of people who make those policiesâ (Verba, Schlozman & Brady, 1995, p. 40).
It can be typically accepted that political behaviors can be scoped widely, which include everything from the nerve wrecking job of running for an elected office (Black 1972), to the relatively tedious act of voting (Wolfinger & Rosenstone 1980), and even to a mere shallow act of an online petition signing (Cruickshank, Smith & Eelmann 2010). Â
The political behaviours such as commenting on othersâ political postings on social media and indicating that you âlikeâ them involve engagement and mobilization, but need very little resources as they do not cost money, they take very little time, and require almost no skills (EshetAlkalai & Chajut, 2009).
Examples of Politicians such as Donald Trump using twitter and get banned
Donald Trump posted a statement ahead of Memorial Day, lamenting higher gas prices and lauding his performance as president.
But despite what you might have seen on Instagram, the statement wasnât made on Twitter, where Trump once had nearly 89 million followers.
On May 27, Trump posted a statement on DonaldJTrump.com noting the approach of Memorial Day, the recent rise in gasoline prices and "how great of a job Donald Trump did as President."
The full text of the statement appeared in the Instagram post, but it was formatted to make it appear as though it came from @realDonaldTrump, Trumpâs former Twitter account. The Instagram poster wrote in his caption: "Heâs back!!!"
Twitter announced Jan. 8 it had permanently suspended Trumpâs account in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol two days earlier, saying: "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them â specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter â we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."
Citing two Trump tweets on Jan. 8, Twitter said: "We assessed the two Tweets referenced above under our Glorification of Violence policy, which aims to prevent the glorification of violence that could inspire others to replicate violent acts and determined that they were highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021."
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed May 28 that Trump's account remains permanently suspended. It appears the message used by the Instagram account came from an account called @realDonaldTrump on Gab.com, an alternative social networking site, that says it is an "uncensored Twitter archive and shares email statements sent by The Office of Donald J. Trump."
What do I think of it? Twitterâs usersâ policy had always strives to protect their users. Although Twitter has the correct approach in protecting users, freedom of speech is limited as the other users cannot voice out their opinion on politics which may discourage users from engaging in any political matters in the past, present, as well as the coming years.
Black, GS 1972, âA theory of political ambition: Career choices and the role of structural incentivesâ, American Political Science Review, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 144â159.
Cruickshank, P, Smith, CF & Edelmann, N 2010, âSigning an e-petition as a transition from lurking to participationâ, Electronic Government and Electronic Participation, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Wolfinger, RE, & Rosenstone, SJ 1980, âWho votes?â New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Verba, S, Schlozman, K, & Brady, H 1995, âVoice and equalityâ, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Eshet-Alkalai, Y, & Chajut, E 2009, âChanges over time in digital literacyâ, Cyberpsychology & Behavior, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 713â715.