Background: If globally implemented, a safe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program will have broad clinical and socioeconomic benefits. However, individuals who anticipate that the coronavirus vaccine will bring life back to normality may be disappointed, due to the emerging antivaccination attitude within the general population. Methods: We surveyed a sample of adult Polish citizens (n = 1066), and compared it with the data on international COVID-19 vaccine reluctance. Results: In 20 national surveys, the vaccine averseness for the anticipated COVID-19 vaccine varied from meager (2–6% China) to very high (43%, Czech Republic, and 44%, Turkey) and in most countries was much higher than regular vaccination reluctance, which varies between 3% (Egypt) and 55% (Russia). Conclusions: These results suggest that a 67% herd immunity may be possible only if mandatory preventive vaccination programs start early and are combined with coordinated education efforts supported by legislative power and social campaigns.
The importance of digital evidence, especially online content, is continuously increasing due to the proliferation of digital technologies in socio-economic life. However, the legal means of criminal evidence gathering in Polish legislation remain unchanged and do not take into account some contemporary challenges. In various countries, traditional rules of evidence gathering were created in the context of a physical world. These rules may be insufficient to safeguard the forensic soundness of evidence gathering methods. Inadequacies of current procedures may be especially visible in the context of transborder digital evidence gathering from online open sources. This article describes the practical shortcomings of Polish criminal evidence law in the context of digital evidence with particular attention to online open-source materials. Empirical data indicate that existing legal limitations are bypassed in practice to enable evidence collection. This unfortunately often happens at the expense of the forensic soundness of digital evidence.
The paper presents a longitudinal cohort survey on the public acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination and real vaccination levels. A survey on a representative sample of adult Polish citizens (n = 1066) was conducted in June 2020 and, one year later, the same group was approached to compare the hypothetical declarations with the real vaccination decisions (n = 438). A significant part of the group that declared reluctance and hesitation toward COVID-19 vaccination before that vaccination was available actually got vaccinated or plans to get vaccinated. Those respondents were asked about the reasons for changing their attitudes. Among the previously vaccine-reluctant individuals, the main reasons included concern about their health and safety (50%) and their desire to travel (26.6%). Vaccine-hesitant individuals also indicated health and safety as their primary concern (69%), as well as the pursuit of herd immunity and a notion of common social safety (12.6%). The main factors helping to increase vaccination acceptance are based on a self-centered pursuit of safety and freedom from restrictions. The survey results may help to prepare a more effective vaccination campaign.
Some cybercrimes are relatively easy to prosecute, while others are almost impossible. This often depends on the perpetrator’s modus operandi. When it comes to hate speech or other prohibited content posted on social networking sites, the effectiveness of basic investigative activities relying on data provided by the site administrator is limited. This article presents the results of a qualitative analysis of selected cases of legally concluded criminal proceedings concerning crossing the limits of freedom of expression on the Internet, where prosecution was successful and the real perpetrator was identified and brought to justice. In the analyzed cases, all perpetrators who posted on websites run by Polish entities were identified effectively, due to the cooperation between law enforcement authorities, website administrators, and telecommunications entities. On the other hand, the perpetrators of hate speech on foreign social networking sites (e.g. Facebook) were identified with basic Open-Source Intelligence techniques analysis, based on data publicly available in the perpetrators’ profiles (such as names and surnames, workplaces, and details of family and friends). This article provides descriptions of the facts and the course of proceedings in the analyzed cases, illustrating various variants of how the identity of the perpetrator through the analysis of publicly available data may be established.
Key words: social media, hate speech, cybercrime, OSINT
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.