Justice Trends 2: Automated Justice Get the Gist of the future for technology in justice

Automating Society

Some of the most significant social issues in society are interrelated and revolve around social media in various ways: targeting specific people/communities, propaganda, privacy, and inclusion.

Targeting

The rise of social media has caused concern about society’s willingness to sacrifice privacy for online services. Although social and legal interest in privacy is increasing, advertisers and other content producers have used the lack of privacy to target certain demographics to effect changes in society. In response, in May 2018, Europe passed new privacy legislation called the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR that seeks to ensure that users know, understand, and consent to the data collected about themFootnote 16. Some people believe that social media also causes many people to be more distracted and think less deeply about anything else that concerns society outside of an individual’s purviewFootnote 17. Could the complex nature of this echo chamber phenomenon affect social cohesion? If so, what would be the role of the justice system in such circumstances?

  1. Science researchers have developed a new algorithm that uses Flickr photos to accurately predict people's present locations.
  2. The researchers Yilun Wang and Michal Kosinski had built an algorithm that could use facial images to correctly distinguish between gay and heterosexual men in 81% of cases.
  3. Harvard scientists have developed an algorithm that predicts whether a social structure is likely to favor cooperation.
  4. The fear is that social algorithm[s] will eventually filter out anything you don't want [to] hear, leading to an echo chamber and a pretty dull populace.

Propaganda

Societies often change rapidly after grassroots movements mature, and even grassroots movements are maturing more rapidly thanks to social media. One study looked at how quickly Americans changed their minds on six big issues—interracial marriage, prohibition, women’s suffrage, abortion, same-sex marriage, and recreational marijuana.Footnote 18 A primary concern over social media is the proliferation of competing propaganda and misinformation which builds to the point of confusion.

Some of this type of confusion could be clarified as the general public increases its knowledge of the law in order to effect change. Advocates for unfettered free speech worry that concerns over misinformation and fake news could allow governments to pass anti-propaganda legislation that might cross a line and threaten legitimate free speechFootnote 19. This may already be happening in countries such as the USA and the Czech Republic. Germany has already started working on ways to combat fake news and algorithms that spread misinformation.Footnote 20

  1. There are few greater threats to democracy in the world today than the proliferation of fake news and propaganda.
  2. A wave of terrorist attacks in Europe have emphasised the role of online propaganda for the threat from terrorism.
  3. Information warfare and "fake news" have played a prominent role in global politics over the last several years and could dominate the relationship between societies, governments, politicians, and militaries in the future operational environment.
  4. The U.S. government's new "Global Engagement Center" will seek to ensure that the censorship is even more complete with its goal to counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation.
  5. The risk of netizens obtaining only superficial understandings of issues, the possibility of echo chambers occurring, and the threat posed by fake news underscores significant challenges.

Privacy

Consumers of social media have concerns about propaganda and questions about how large social media companies such as Facebook use their personal data. Public dialogue about the tradeoffs of personal information for services has been ongoing. The issue became more of a public concern when the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal was fully disclosed. Watchdogs have been warning that social media companies have to move beyond data-mining the personal information of their clients.Footnote 21

Facebook released private information on 50 million of its users to Cambridge Analytica which exploited the data with the intention of swaying the US electorate to vote for Donald Trump as president. In truth, nearly all of Facebook’s users have had their data ‘scraped’ by malicious actors.Footnote 22 It is still too early to tell if users will sustainably change their behaviour on social media to protect their own data. However, Cambridge Analytica has shut its doors,Footnote 23 and Facebook is promising to change its policies amid the public uproar.

The social media-induced data exchange could be an ongoing issue with ramifications for the legal industry. For instance, legal teams may have to work harder to find information about their clients and other stakeholders. There could also be an uptick of cases concerning privacy.

  1. 71 percent of more than 5,000 consumers polled in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia said they did not want companies to use artificial intelligence that threatens to infringe on their privacy.
  2. Over the next five years, the notion of "privacy" will undergo a radical change, and perhaps what is seen as unethical today will become acceptable tomorrow.
  3. The risks of severely injuring people's lives has prompted New Zealand and the European Union to strengthen privacy laws in ways that significantly limit the use of algorithms for social programs.

European Union's General Data Protection Regulation

  1. Some privacy advocates hope that the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25 [2018], will give users - even Americans - greater protections about what data tech firms can collect, how the data can be used, and how consumers can be given more opportunities to see what is happening with their information.
  2. Within hours of the European Union's (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect on 25 May  [2018], technology giants Google and Facebook have been hit with privacy complaints that could carry fines of up to $9.3 billion in total.
  3. The GDPR will have a negative impact on the development and use of artificial intelligence in Europe.

Discrimination vs. Inclusion

Every individual is different, but recognizing, even celebrating, diversity is very different from developing an inclusive society. The question of social inclusion and social cohesion is relevant because concerns about immigration and diversity (in Canada and internationally)Footnote 24 have led alt-right, anti-immigrant groups to use increasingly violent rhetoric with potentially inflammatory results. And considering the inherent bias within the police algorithms mentioned above, concerns about discrimination are pertinent. Canada also has concerns over inclusion and social cohesion.Footnote 25 The rise of alt-right groups will have negative effects on vulnerable groups, such as women, immigrants, Indigenous peoples, racialized minorities, LGBTQ communities, and other minority groups.

In many ways, society is not just categorizing itself but segregating itself. Technology is clearly playing a part, but so are other factors.Footnote 26 Despite an apparent polarization in politics (especially in the US but also in Canada), society is growing increasingly less binary.

  1. Within 30 years, both the US and UK will be majority-minority societies. Alongside this shift, the way people see themselves is changing: the term "mixed race" is losing relevance, and more nuanced definitions of gender and ethnicity are emerging.
  2. Law school may be the perfect place for women in America to resist, persist, and prove that the future is female.

In Canada

  1. Statistics Canada projection to 2036 found the share of Indigenous people in the population will grow as high as 6.1%, from 4.4% in the 2011 census. The total share of immigrants in Canada’s population is expected to reach up to 30% by 2036, which would be the highest since 1871.
  2. Over a quarter of the population (26-30 per cent) will have a mother tongue other than English or French, up from 20 per cent now.
  3. The first official language spoken will more often be English and less often French (English, 75 per cent to 78 per cent; French, 23 per cent to 21 per cent).
  4. The proportion of native-speaker Francophones will fall faster than Anglophones, to 17-18 per cent from 21 per cent now. The French mother tongue population will fall both in Quebec (from about 80 per cent to about 70 per cent) and in the rest of Canada (from 3.8 percent to about 2.8 per cent).
  5. Indigenous households in Canada are more likely than non-Indigenous households to experience the sociodemographic risk factors associated with household food insecurity (e.g. extreme poverty, single-motherhood, living in a rental accommodation, and reliance on social assistance).
  6. By 2034, Canada will face the same challenge Atlantic Canada is currently experiencing - the natural rate of increase will turn negative: Boosting immigration to some 400,000 in the early 2030s will help keep population growth steady at about 1 per cent per year.

Human Resources

  1. Some of Britain's largest companies will need to recruit or promote 40 per cent more women into senior positions if firms are to meet new targets and help make the UK a global leader in gender diversity.
  2. Gartner predicted in a March 2017 research note that by 2020, more than 75% of large enterprises will include features that promote diversity and inclusion in their selection process for HR software.