Jabari
Brooks
Forrest
Haydon
Jay
Rehak
English
II
4 May,
2014
Crowdsourcing: Negative Effects on Society
Crowdsourcing is just one of the offspring of
accelerating means of socialization. It started with a simple website Kick-starter
but it has now coalesced into a myriad of different applications. To date,
there are countless websites that use it in order to gain information and so
on. One classic example of this would be Yahoo Answers, or Wikipedia.
Essentially crowdsourcing makes it easier for information to be collected and
showcased. In addition, the speed of crowdsourcing is significantly increasing
as well. In merely a few years bio printing has been engendered. However at
this alarming rate the potential of crowdsourcing technology definitely proves
problematic. The problems that arise can be argued how crucial they are, but
there is a problem none the less.
The potential for crowdsourcing technology may
have benefits, but more importantly the applications of this technology can
prove to be very dangerous and outweigh the benefits. Many of the
downsides of this can be found with the potential for 3D printing of weapons,
the use of social media networks and blogs aiding terrorist in communications
or creation of weapons, and the leakage of secret government documents through
crowdsourcing.
To begin, there are many negative aspects
to the modern day phenomenon of sharing
information
called crowdsourcing. One of these major aspects is that of a modern invention
called the 3-D printer. Now in essence the 3-D printer was created without
incorporating crowdsourcing. In fact crowdsourcing, like 3-D printing, was not
created recently (Ponsford).
A man named Charles Hull created it roughly 30
years ago. He made this invention originally from acrylic ink that would turn
solid in the presence of UV lighting. Mr. Hull did all of this from a small lab
in a business he was a part of during that time. After his invention others
took the idea and built upon it. However, it was extremely limited by the technology
accessible around the time of the late 90’s. With modern technology, in the
turn of the 21st century, has allowed this technology to be adopted by various
companies with limitless capabilities. (Ponsford)
To better understand first 3-D printing and
how it works, its functionality will be discussed. First off, like regular
printing it starts from a 2-D realm. This entails making a model from scratch
on a computer, or writing a program for the printer to follow. Then the program
will splice the model into thousands of layers for the printer to recreate.
Once this is done the printer will then begin to print. With a laser, or other
forms of high intensity light, a beam will melt and mold a layer of material
into a certain shape. After that the printer will continue layering materials
upon each other until the model is created, seemingly from thin air. Different
materials can be used including, plastic, metal, chocolate, nylon, and even
living cells. Of course the capabilities of this machine become endless. When
you add crowdsourcing to the fray interesting things begin to occur. (Fleming)
One example of how the potential for this
technology to go in a bad direction with crowdsourcing is the printing of guns.
At first the possibility for this technology to be used to
create a gun was deemed unlikely. However this
was proven wrong when the first gun was created out of plastic. Furthermore,
the plastic material meant that the gun would be undetectable in airports and
other facilities. What is scary about this is that the Undetectable Firearms
Act banning weapons that cannot be sensed do not apply to 3-D printing
according to Steve Israel, A Congress Representative. Essentially then anyone
can enter buildings and areas that can usually detect weapons, and have an
edge. (Doherty)
The ramifications of that type of weaponry are
very serious; just imagine what terrorist organizations could do with that.
However, that is a very extreme. One immediate thing to consider is that once
crowd sourced anyone with a 3-D printer can easily access the schematics for a
gun. The question arises, how can someone regulate millions of people accessing
this then? When that question is asked alarming ideas should arise because
there are no true ways to regulate who can access them. Thus anyone can easily
gain access to a gun. Does that mean that more incidents like the Sandy Hook
one will come into fruition? Does it mean that gang members and murders will
easily be able to bypass protocol and just download a gun? These questions
demonstrate just how deadly such a simple innovation can easily become deadly.
Now with crowdsourcing an even
sinister dimension is added to this. There are a lot of sites that give
countless programs for weapons including guns. These programs can easily be
accessed and downloaded for printing, endangering the public as a whole.
In addition, crowdsourcing in the form of social
media has recently popularity by people all around the world to broadcast their
ideas and communicated with others. This has opened the door for illicit
activities by extremist groups. Now, you can go on the internet and go on a
social media site such as Facebook or twitter and find that terrorist
organizations have accounts which
they use in order to advertise and communicate
with other criminals.
Jack Dorsey founded twitter in 2006. He
originally came up with the idea, as smart phones were just starting to gain
popularity. He wanted a way to be able to send short messages, almost like a
text, to a group of friends (about.com). Thus Twitter was created, and is now
one of the biggest sites to find crowd sourced data. Now in age every
organization, group or institution has a social media account. This includes
many terrorist groups, who have set up accounts. One of the most recent examples
of this is the militant group from Somalia, Al-Shabaab who attacked a shopping
mall in Nairobi, Kenya. They used twitter right before the attack and
during their attack to broadcast their goals. Twitter learned of this and
proceeded to terminate the account. A few hours later when Al-Shabaab entered
the mall and began shooting people and causing mayhem, they created another
twitter account where they had a live feed running to give real-time updates of
what was going on while they were conducting this attack (Prasant).
Moreover, there are various other activities on
twitter by infamous groups. Al-Qaeda was also on twitter using the pseudonym Shamukh al-Islam,
in which they “tweeted” about religious proclamations and other things such as
death tolls due to their attacks. This twitter page had close to 2,000
followers before it was suspended (Naidu). These suspensions rely on someone to
report the accounts, because we don’t have the technology to identify who real
threats are, especially if groups are using false identities. According
to Dan rivers, a Senior International Correspondent for CNN, the main problem
is that although these accounts are reported, there are many private chat-rooms
where terrorist leaders from around the world exchange information and tactics.
Hence, crowd sourced sites may not be completely safe if they are diffusing
extremist ideology (Rivers).
In addition, crowdsourcing can help give false information through
social media sites, when an important event occurs. According to Roland Paris,
Former Director of Research at the Conference Board of Canada, there have
always been false rumors spread, but now in age it is much more difficult to
find the truth because when one person shares it, it is quoted by people
everywhere even though it might be false. In July there was a terrorist attack in Norway, and at first there was no
information about the perpetrator of the attack. Originally experts said that
the terrorist was an Islamist Militant from a Jihadist organization, but after
the attack the identity of the attacker was a Caucasian anti-Muslim
reactionary. Many experts were then put under fire for their false and
seemingly bias claims, but in reality it is not entirely to blame (Paris).
Right after the attack, people turned to social
media and began sharing information with nothing to back it up. News reporters
are increasingly pressure to be the first sources of information, and to use
social media to interact with people when a newsworthy event happens.
Many reporters went on to social media, and due to a lack of patience,
and began claiming the attacker identity and affiliations to certain
organizations. Having no information to report on, they used made up
intelligence created by civilians who are sharing their opinion and theories on
the matter, thus creating mass confusion due to false intelligence shared by
crowd sourcing (Paris).
In spite of all of the information given there
are still some those who believe that the benefits for the crowdsourcing
technology potential outweigh the negatives. In terms of the 3-D printed guns
there are many who believe them to be harmless, many thought it would only be
used to print simple things such as toys or other ordinary everyday items. In
fact before the first
printed gun was made most people did not think it
could even be possible. Most people have only created small semi
functional guns that break upon the first couple of shots, due to the ballistic
strength of the bullet would destroy low integrity of plastic 3-D makeup of the
gun. Therefore, it was projected that it would take years for a fully
functional gun to be printed. (Bilton)
Then to add to that, as Richard D’Aveni, a
business professor at Dartmouth basically said that 3-D printing would lead to
the drastic decrease in cost of production for various objects (D’Aveni). On
another note with the terrorist extremist groups police and law enforcement are
not too alarmed. Most believe that their information can be easily tracked
since it is own crowd sourced internet technology. At the same time governments
have also been using crowdsourced technology to search for and apprehend large
scale criminals as well. Thus all of the benefits in terms of crowdsourcing for
most people overshadow the bad truths lurking in the shadows. However as stressed
throughout this paper, these truths should not just be ignored for they tell of
the grim future that lies in store if these issues are not addressed now.
In Conclusion, crowdsourcing has had, and will
continue to have a negative impact on society. There are guns that undetectable
and outside the reach of the law due to 3-D printing technology. Social media
has aided terrorist and other extremists to gain support and followers on a
large scale due to the World Wide Web. There continues to be many negative
aspects including sharing of intelligence in blogs, that could potentially
cause damage to the public. For god’s sake, even secret government document
have been leaked that endanger the lives of millions.
Works
Cited
Bellis,
Mary. "What is Twitter and Who Invented It?." About.com Inventors.
About.com, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Twitter.htm>.
Bilton,
Nick. "How 3-D Printers Are Now Making Weapons." Bits How 3D
Printers Are Now Making Weapons Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/click-print-gun-how-3-d-printer-are-now-making-weapons/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.
D'Aveni,
Richard. "3-D Printing Will Change the World." Harvard Business
Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world/ar/1>.
Fleming,
Mark. "What is 3D Printing? An Overview. | 3D Printer3D Printer." 3D
Printer. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing>.
Naidu,
Prasant . "Increased Presence of Terrorist Organizations on Social Media:
Challenges For Social Networks." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
<http://socialmediatoday.com/prasant-naidu/1786511/terrorist-organizations-social-media-challenges-social-networks>.
Paris,
Roland. "Crowd-sourcing Terror in Norway." Canadian International
Council Canadas hub for international affairs Crowdsourcing Terror
in Norway Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://opencanada.org/features/crowd-sourcing-terror-in-norway/>.
Ponsford,
Matthew. "'The night I invented 3D printing'." CNN. Cable News
Network, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/innovation/the-night-i-invented-3d-printing-chuck-hall/>.
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