Critical Reflection

Upon completing the entire ES1102 module, I find myself being a little more of a “grammar police” when it comes to essay writing as well as in my speech. The module has helped to equip me with skills and techniques that I otherwise would never have. Through out the 13 weeks of class, our teacher, Brad, assigned us with different types of writing assignments such as reflective journals that came in the form of blog posts, reader response essays as well as problem-solution essays. The class was also split into different “blogging groups” in order for us to better help one another with our writings by giving peer reviews on each others blog posts.

Sentence fragment used to be one of the biggest problem and bad habit in my writing, it was also a problem I never realized I had until my mistake was pointed out in class. At the beginning, I found it extremely challenging to change this bad habit of mine. However, through the peer reviews on my blog posts, constantly reminding me of this same mistake, I slowly started to take more notice of the way I write my sentences. Slowly, but surely, I managed to overcome this writing problem of mine.

Through this module, I also realized the importance of proper citations. In the past, citations used to be something that I made little to no attention to. It was not until this module that I realize the lack of proper citations can actually cost me valuable grades in all my other modules. I now pay extra attention to citing my sources properly in every essay that I complete, in this module as well as in others.

While some may think that since this module offers no modular credits, it is redundant, I for one think otherwise.  I have learned many other valuable lessons in the English language, aside from the two mentioned above that, will continue to remain valuable even outside of the ES1102 classroom. Being a student in the Faculty of Arts and Social sciences, essay writing is extremely important for me, and for that, I am thankful for having been a part of this module.

Presentation Reflection

I have never done a presentation without at least holding some form of a script in my hands. Being able to give a presentation for 7 minutes without a script seemed challenging at first. However, after having done the presentation, i feel that presenting without a script actually helped me in trying to bring my point across. Without feeling "bounded" or "constricted" by a script, i was able to express myself easily. I felt that i could have improved in certain areas such as making the powerpoint slides a little more comprehensive and neat so that my audiences can follow up easily. I also should have practiced more in order not to forget my concluding point.

Essay draft 3

Joycelyn Yew

A0126923

ES1102 [A04]

Increasingly, social media platforms such as Facebook have become platforms for anonymous groups in Singapore to target and attack popular social media influences such as bloggers. While what these groups post on their social media pages may seem harmless and even taken as a joke to some, there have been instances where these “jokes” have had the potential to cause physical harm to their victims. For instance, the home address of Singapore blogger Wendy Cheng, also known as “Xiaxue” was exposed online by a follower of the anonymous Facebook group “SMRT Ltd Feedback” in 2014. The follower had used an online tool that SMRTfeedback had posted on its Facebook page to find out Wendy’s address (Cheng, 2015). The reason for this being, they simply did not like her. With thousands of followers on SMRTFeedbacks Facebook page, exposing their victim’s home address online puts their lives in danger. Laws such as the Protection from Harassment Act aim to protect individuals against cyber harassment such as seen in Wendy Cheng’s case. The solution however, is not entirely full proof. For example, perpetrators are not required to expose their identities; as such they are still able to harass their victims using another online identity. To solve this, the Protection Act should require for cyber harassers to expose their identities online.

In 2014, Singapore full-time blogger Wendy Cheng filed for a Protection Order against the anonymous vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback). According to Wendy, the anonymous group had been harassing her via social media platforms like twitter and Facebook. The group has allegedly posted insulting and derogatory comments about her looks and her character and even accused her of rigging her blog’s statistic counter. This could have potentially affected her blogging career (Koh, 2015). When her home address was posted online for virtually anyone to see, Wendy filed for the Protection Order for fear of the safety of her 2-year-old son and elderly mother. This is not the first time that the anonymous group has exposed the home address of a person online. In 2014, following an incident where a Sim Lim Square shop owner Jover Chew swindled a Vietnamese tourist into paying a highly exorbitant price for an IPhone, the self-proclaimed vigilante group took justice into their own hands by exposing the home address of Jover Chew online so that online users could play pranks on him in punishment for his misdeed. While these may all seem like harmless pranks, they actually pose danger to victim’s lives as well as their careers and businesses. As such, it is very evident to see that social media have indeed provided a platform for anonymous groups in Singapore to attack other users online without having to face any sorts of punishment for their actions.

The Protection Order was put in place in 2014. Unlike any other acts, the Protection Order is extended to the anonymous on social media. The act helps to “protect persons against harassment, unlawful stalking and provide civil remedies in relation to false states of fact” (Yam, 2014). This means that cyber harassers will no longer be able to make untrue or derogatory statements, or expose personal details about their victims under the Protection Order. Harassers are liable to punishment if they fail to obey the order. While the act may be effective in punishing harassers, it fails to take into consideration certain issues, as such making the solution to the problem of cyber harassment a non-full proof one. For example, the Protection Order does not require anonymous entities to expose their identities.  This means that anonymous groups like SMRTFeedback can actually pose as another social media persona to attack its victims without breaking the rules of the Protection Order. Being able to remain anonymous empowers individuals to misbehave or do deviant acts since they do not need to take responsibility for their actions online. Not requiring these groups to expose their identities as such does not strip them of this false sense of power.

In order to make the Protection Harassment Act a more effective one, the Act needs to require anonymous persons to expose their identities to the law. This is firstly to ensure that harassers do not set up different accounts in order to continue their acts online without getting caught for cyber harassing their victims since nobody will actually know that it is still they behind the different accounts.  Secondly, exposing their identities will also force these anonymous groups or individuals to take full responsibility for their actions on social media platforms. Having to account for their online actions in real life can as such help to strip them of their power of anonymity, helping to deter these groups from misbehaving online.

Aside from the Protection Harassment Act that has been implemented, the Singapore police force has also put in place “Cybercrime Command”, an act within the Criminal investigation Department (CID) in order to combat cybercrimes (Lim, 2015). The cybercrime command aims to create a platform whereby young Singaporeans who use the Internet often are able to work hand in hand with the police in investigating cyber-harassers. The Internet is a huge network; it is nearly impossible for the police to track down every single activity. As such, the platform will be an effective measure to take towards cyber-harassment as it allows the online community to give “tip-offs” to the CID whenever they witness an online harassment taking place, the CID will then look into the issue and take necessary actions on the harassers. (Liang, 2015).

While Cybercrime command may be effective in locating and punishing cyber-harassers, like the Protection Harassment Act, it is not a preventive measure towards cyber-harassment. Both measures only solve the issue as it arises. In order to combat cyber-harassment, actions need to be taken at the root of the problem. To prevent these anonymous groups from harassing their victims. A preventive measure would be stating rules that comments exposing personal information of their victims are not allowed to be posted on social media platform pages. The Singapore government can collaborate with Social media platform administrators such as on Facebook, to hire “online patrolling police” to ensure that social media accounts that have been reported by victims for cyber-harassments do not post comments, exposing personal details that can potentially cause physical harm to its victims. Should there be any form of these types of cyber-harassment detected, the social media account of the anonymous group will then be forced to shut down after a warning.

As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure.”  Attempting to solve the issue of cyber harassment through laws such as the Protection act order and the Cybercrime command may be effective in certain ways as mentioned above. However in order to prevent cyber harassment from taking place, cooperation between both social media platform administrators and the police force is necessary.

References:

Cheng, W. (2015, February 6). xiaxue. Retrieved from www.xiaxue.blogspot.com.sg

Koh, V. (2015, February 6). Channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/xiaxue-takes-out/1641824.html

Liang, L. Y. (2015, March 6). the staits time singapore. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/new-cybercrime-unit-within-the-cid-be-set-20150306

Lim, Y. (2015, March 06). channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/police-to-set-up-new/1698876.html

Yam, P. T. (2014, September 19). Singapore Statuses Online. Retrieved from http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=DocId%3A%2207275b05-417a-4de5-a316-4c15606a2b8d%22%20Status%3Ainforce%20Depth%3A0;rec=0

Essay draft 2

Increasingly, social media platforms such as Facebook have become platforms for anonymous groups in Singapore to target and attack popular social media influences such as bloggers. While what these groups post on their social media pages may seem harmless and even taken as a joke to some, there have been instances where lines have been crossed. For instance, the home address of Singapore blogger Wendy Cheng, also known as “Xiaxue” was exposed online by a follower of the anonymous Facebook group “SMRT Ltd Feedback” in 2014. The follower had used an online tool that SMRTfeedback had posted on its Facebook page to find out Wendy’s address. (Cheng, 2015)The reason for this being, they simply did not like her. With thousands of followers on SMRTFeedbacks Facebook page, exposing their victim’s home address online puts their lives in danger. While there are laws, such as the Protection from Harassment Act to protect an individual against cyber harassments like these, the solution is not full proof and still leaves many victims of cyber harassment unprotected.

In 2014, Singapore full time blogger Wendy Cheng filed for a Protection Order against the anonymous vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback). According to Wendy, the anonymous group had been harassing her via social media platforms like twitter and Facebook. The group has allegedly posted insulting and derogatory comments about her looks, her character and even accused her of rigging her blog’s statistic counter. This could have potentially affected her blogging career. (Koh, 2015) When her home address was posted online for virtually anyone to see, Wendy filed for the Protection Order for fear of the safety of her 2 year old son and elderly mother. This is not the first time that the anonymous group has exposed the home address of a person online. In 2014, following an incident where a Sim Lim Square shop owner Jover Chew swindled a Vietnamese tourist into paying a highly exorbitant price for an IPhone. The self-proclaimed vigilante group took justice into their own hands by exposing the home address of Jover Chew online so that online users could play pranks on him in punishment for his misdeed. While these may all seem like harmless pranks, it actually poses danger to victim’s lives as well as their careers and businesses.

The Protection Order was put in place in 2014. Unlike any other acts, the Protection Order is extended to the anonymous on social media. The act helps to “protect persons against harassment, unlawful stalking and provide civil remedies in relation to false states of fact.” (Yam, 2014) This means that cyber harassers will no longer be able to make untrue or derogatory and abusive statements about their victims under the Protection Order. Harassers are liable to punishments if they fail to obey the order. While the act may be effective in punishing harassers, it fails to take into consideration certain issues, as such making the solution to the problem of cyber harassment a non-full proof one.

The Protection Order does not require anonymous entities to expose their identities.  This means that anonymous groups like SMRTFeedback can actually take on another social media persona to attack its victims without breaking the rules of the Protection Order. Also, with a large number of followers and fans of, stopping the group itself from cyber harassing its victims does not stop their followers from continuing to do so. As such, the Protection Order does not entirely protect cyber victims from harassments online.

In order to make the Protection Harassment Act a more effective one, the Act needs to require anonymous persons to expose their identities to the law. This is to ensure that harassers do not set up different accounts in order to continue their acts online without getting caught for it.  Also, the Protection Order could extent its watch not just to owners of the social media page but to their followers as well. If a Protection Order is taken on a particular social media account, anyone who posts abusive or false statements about the victim on the page should also face a penalty. This is to deter users from cyber-harassing fellow online users. This ensures that cyber harassment does not continue to carry on through the harasser’s followers and fans.

Aside from the Protection Harassment Act that has been implemented, Singapore has also put in place “Cybercrime Command”, an act within the Criminal investigation Department (CID) in order to combat cybercrimes. (Lim, 2015) The cybercrime command aims to create a platform whereby young Singaporeans who use the Internet often are able to work hand in hand with the police in investigating cyber-harassers. The Internet is a huge network; it is nearly impossible for the police to track down every single activity. As such, the platform will be an effective measure to take towards cyber-harassment as it allows the online community to give “tip-offs” to the CID whenever they witness an online harassment taking place, the CID will then look into the issue and take necessary actions on the harassers. (Liang, 2015).

While Cybercrime command may be effective in locating and punishing cyber-harassers, like the Protection Harassment Act, it is not a preventive measure towards cyber-harassment. Both measures only solve the issue as it arises. In order to combat cyber-harassment, actions need to be taken at the root of the problem. To prevent these anonymous groups from harassing their victims. A preventive measure would be stating rules that harmful or derogatory comments are not allowed to be posted on social media platform pages. Social media platform administrators should ensure that popular social media accounts with over a certain number of followers are monitored closely with routine checks. Should there be any form of cyber-harassment detected, the social media page will then be forced to shut down after a warning. Should there be a need, the administrators can then report the issue to the police for further action to be taken.

As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure.”  Attempting to solve the issue of cyber harassment through laws such as the Protection act order and the Cybercrime command may be effective in certain ways as mentioned above. However in order to prevent cyber harassment from taking place, cooperation between both social media platform administrators and the police force is necessary.

References:

Koh, V. (2015, February 6). Channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/xiaxue-takes-out/1641824.html

Liang, L. Y. (2015, March 6). the staits time singapore. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/new-cybercrime-unit-within-the-cid-be-set-20150306

Lim, Y. (2015, March 06). channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/police-to-set-up-new/1698876.html

Cheng, W. (2015, February 6). xiaxue. Retrieved from www.xiaxue.blogspot.com.sg

Yam, P. T. (2014, September 19). Singapore Statuses Online. Retrieved from http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=DocId%3A%2207275b05-417a-4de5-a316-4c15606a2b8d%22%20Status%3Ainforce%20Depth%3A0;rec=0

Essay draft 1

Increasingly, social media platforms such as Facebook have become a platform for anonymous groups in Singapore to target and attack popular social media influences such as bloggers. While what these vigilantes post on their social media platform pages may seem harmless and even taken as a joke to some, there have been instances where lines have been crossed. For instance, the home address of Singapore blogger Wendy Cheng was exposed online by a follower of the anonymous group “SMRT Ltd Feedback” in 2014. The follower had used an online tool that the anonymous group had posted on its Facebook page to find out Wendy’s address. (Cheng, 2015)The reason for this being, they simply did not like her. With thousands of followers on SMRT Feedbacks Facebook page, exposing their victim’s home address online puts their victims lives in danger. While there are laws, such as the Protection from Harassment Act to protect an individual against cyber harassments like these, the solution is not full proof and still leaves many victims of cyber harassment unprotected.

In 2014, Singapore full time blogger Wendy Cheng filed for a Protection Order against the anonymous satirical vigilante group SMRT Ltd (Feedback). According to Wendy, the anonymous group had been harassing her via social media platforms like twitter and Facebook. The group has allegedly posted insulting and derogatory comments about her looks, her character and even accused her of rigging her blog’s statistic counter and fraud, which could have potentially affected her blogging career. (Koh, 2015) When her home address was posted online for virtually anyone to see, Wendy filed for the Protection Order for fear of the safety of her 2 year old son and mother. This is not the first time that the anonymous group has exposed the home address of a person online. In 2014, following an incident where a Sim Lim Square shop owner Jover Chew swindled a Vietnamese tourist into paying a highly exorbitant price for an IPhone. The vigilante group took justice into their own hands by exposing the home address of Jover Chew online so that online users could play pranks on him in punishment for his misdeed. While these may all seem like harmless, satire pranks, it actually poses danger to victim’s lives as well as their careers and businesses.

The Protection Order was put in place in 2014. Unlike any other acts, the Protection Order is extended to the anonymous on social media. The act helps to “protect persons against harassment and unlawful stalking and provide civil remedies in relation to false states of fact.” (Yam, 2014) This means that cyber harassers will no longer be able to make untrue or derogatory and abusive communication about their victims under the Protection Order. They are also liable to punishments if they fail to obey the order. While the act may seem effective, it actually fails to take into consideration certain details, as such making the solution to the problem of cyber harassment a non full proof one.

The Protection Order does not require the anonymous to expose their identities.  This means that anonymous groups like the SMRT Feedback can actually take on another social media persona to attack its victims without breaking the rules of the Protection Order on their social media account. Also, with a large number of followers and fans of the vigilante group, stopping the group itself from cyber harassing its victims does not stop their followers from continuing to do so. As such, the Protection Order does not entirely protect cyber victims from harassments online.

Aside from the Protection Harassment Act that has been implemented, Singapore has also put in place a new “Cybercrime Command” within the Criminal investigation Department (CID) in order to combat cybercrimes. (Lim, 2015) The cybercrime command aims to create a platform whereby young Singaporeans who use the Internet often are able to work hand in hand with the police in investigating cyber-harassers. The Internet is a huge network; it is nearly impossible for the police to track down every single activity. As such, the platform will be an effective measure to take towards cyber-harassment as it allows the online community to give “tip-offs” to the CID whenever they witness an online harassment taking place, the CID will then look into the issue and take necessary actions on the harassers. (Liang, 2015).

While Cybercrime command may be effective in locating and punishing cyber-harassers, like the Protection Harassment Act, it is not a preventive measure towards cyber-harassment. Both measures only solve the issue as it arises. In order to combat cyber-harassment, actions need to be taken at the root of the problem. To prevent these anonymous groups from harassing their victims. A preventive measure would be stating rules that harmful or derogatory comments are not allowed to be posted on social media platform pages. Social media platform administrators should ensure that popular social media accounts with over a certain number of followers are monitored closely with routine checks. Should there be any form of cyber-harassment detected, the social media page will then be forced to shut down after a warning. Should there be a need, the administrators can then report the issue to the police for further action to be taken.

As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure.”  Attempting to solve the issue of cyber harassment through laws such as the Protection act order and the Cybercrime command may be effective in certain ways as mentioned above. However in order to prevent cyber harassment from taking place,  cooperation between both social media platform administrators and the police force is necessary.

References:

Koh, V. (2015, February 6). Channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/xiaxue-takes-out/1641824.html

Yam, P. T. (2014, September 19). Singapore Statuses Online. Retrieved from http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=DocId%3A%2207275b05-417a-4de5-a316-4c15606a2b8d%22%20Status%3Ainforce%20Depth%3A0;rec=0

Lim, Y. (2015, March 06). channelnewsasia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/police-to-set-up-new/1698876.html

Cheng, W. (2015, February 6). xiaxue. Retrieved from www.xiaxue.blogspot.com.sg

Liang, L. Y. (2015, March 6). the staits time singapore. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/new-cybercrime-unit-within-the-cid-be-set-20150306