The document discusses social media as a tool for social justice, focusing on #blacktwitter and millennial activism, particularly the Black Lives Matter movement. It also addresses ethical and privacy concerns related to social media data mining, questioning the legality of monitoring users and the adequacy of consent regarding data usage. The conclusion emphasizes the need for transparency in research while acknowledging the complex relationship between social media engagement, activism, and emerging data collection laws.

1. #BLACKTWITTER & SOCIAL MINING
By: Ayodele Odubela

2. Social Mining Mindmap

3. Social Media as a Social Justice Tool
 Social media has taken on a bigger role in today’s political climate.
 As “Millennials, Social Media, and Social Justice” mentioned, due to social media, today’s leading
social organizations have no central location, finite guidelines, or leaders.
 The Goal is to research Twitter for social media data that might give us more insight into the
mind of millennials while respecting their privacy excluded from social media privacy laws.

4. The rise of #BlackTwitter and Millennial Activism
One of the most popular social justice movements since the advent of social networking is the Black
Lives Matter movement. Formed after the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin, the movement is
focused on fostering systemic equality for black people in policing and public policy.
Black Twitter as (often represented as #BlackTwitter) has been a major resource for critical thinking
and engagement in activism on Twitter. Black twitter refers to a group of mostly like-minded
individuals on twitter who collectively comment, educate, and make memes based on popular
culture.
While black twitter is know for it’s clever jokes and “clapbacks” there are times where many truly took
an educational approach. It’s our job to draw insights that might help better police community
relations, race relations as a country, implement better polices and reform the criminal justice
system.

5. Ethical Issues
Many ethical issues arise when mining social media data for analysis:
 Should police monitor social media data to flag potential offenders?
 Can a user’s public opinion legally affect their employment or legal standing?
 When we disagree on issues of importance, can we do so nonconfrontationally?

6. Privacy Issues
Many outspoken millennials worry that authorities watch their social media pages, thus stiffening their
current stance against social data mining.
The privacy issues that come up when mining social media data are:
 Did the user consent to sharing their information for research purposes?
 How will social media data be verified (posted by a real person) and anonymized (to protect a user’s
privacy)?
 Informed consent, in my opinion, goes further than someone posting on social media.
 Assuming that users know that what they post can be mined and analyzed freely with no rules,
regulations, or reasons why, is insufficient “consent”.
 A major reason why users believe in social media privacy is due to convoluted wording from Social
Networking sites, a false sense of privacy created by “private messaging” and “anonymous” marketing.
 A 2009 Study showed that 62% of respondents falsely believed that because a website has a website
policy it means they can’t share their data with other companies.

7. Profiling Issues
 One of the large issues that come with mining social media data is profiling users based on
public profiles.
 Should ones internet persona impact their real life (in cases where they aren’t threatening
violence against another person)?
 Should a social media presence translate

9. Conclusion
• When mining for social media data it’s best to make all research transparent. This means informing users
of what their data could be used for, and transparency in how social research is conducted.
• Many millennials use social media for a variety of reasons, and in many cases it includes staying up to
date with social issues and politics. For some, it also leads to an activism seen at rates that were previously
unprecedented.
• Millennials specifically continue to use social media to participate in social discourse, the legality of mining
these data for research are still unresoved. For now it remains completely legal, but as we’ve seen with the
UK creating more forward thinking data collection laws, it would be reasonable to believe this may
change in the next few years.

10. References
 University of Chicago: https://socialsciences.uchicago.edu/news/black-youth-project-survey-first-
ever-%E2%80%98black-millennials-america%E2%80%99-report-released
 On fairness: user perspectives on social media data mining:
https://www.academia.edu/11972918/On_fairness_user_perspectives_on_social_media_data_minin
g
 Millennials, Social Media, and Social Justice: http://www.wupr.org/2016/06/09/millenials-social-
media-and-social-justice/