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Date November 2017 Marks available 2 Reference code 17N.1.SL.TZ0.2
Level SL Paper 1 Time zone no time zone
Command term Identify Question number 2 Adapted from N/A

Question

Social media and political tension

National governments sometimes block websites at a time of political tension. One example was in 2011, when a government prevented its citizens’ access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Images on these websites were considered inappropriate, with the potential to cause hatred, violence and political unrest in that country. The national government gave direct orders to the internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to these sites for four hours. The aim was to give enough time for site officials to remove the offending images from their websites.

Despite these attempts by the government, some citizens were still able to access these images using proxy servers.

Many people, such as academics, believe that this approach is not appropriate and that governments should focus on the education of their citizens so that they are able to make informed decisions about how to react to potentially offensive information on websites and social media.

In addition to providing access to the internet, identify two functions of an internet service provider (ISP).

[2]
a.i.

Identify two characteristics of a proxy server.

[2]
a.ii.

Identify two ways that the government could have determined the identity of the persons responsible for posting the offensive images on social media.

[2]
a.iii.

Many schools block access to social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. However, other schools are investigating two different options:

Analyse these two options.

[6]
b.

Many citizens have raised concerns about the surveillance of their web browsing history or the censorship of selected websites by their national government.

To what extent is it appropriate for national governments to use surveillance and censorship to control citizens’ access to websites?

[8]
c.

Markscheme

Answers may include:


 Award [1] for identifying each characteristic of an internet service provider up to a maximum of [2].

a.i.

Answers may include:


Award [1] for identifying each characteristic of a proxy server up to a maximum of [2].

a.ii.

Answers may include:

Information from the social media provider 


N.B.:
Some students may take the alternative perspective that the identity of the person cannot be determined, only the device, for the same reasons as above.

Award [1] for identifying each way that a government can determine the identity of the person responsible for posting the offending images on the social media up to a maximum of [2].

a.iii.

Answers may include:

Monitoring the network:

Giving different ages different levels of access:


Keywords: home, online, social, relationships, responsibility, trust, software applications, apps, objectionable content, change, expression, identity, power, values, ethics

b.

Answers may include:

Reasons that surveillance and censorship to control citizens’ access to websites is acceptable:

Reasons that surveillance and censorship to control citizens’ access to websites is not acceptable:

 

In part (c) of this question it is expected there will be a balance between the terminology related to digital systems and the terminology related to social and ethical impacts.

Keywords: Automation, connectivity, change, power, systems, values, ethics, machine learning, accountability, transparency, autonomy, surveillance

 

Refer to SL/ HL paper 1, part c markbands when awarding marks. These can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > Digital society markbands and guidance document.

c.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.i.
[N/A]
a.ii.
[N/A]
a.iii.
[N/A]
b.
[N/A]
c.

Syllabus sections

Topic 3: Content » 3.4 Networks and the internet
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Topic 3: Content

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