Comparative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Report Analysis

This report delves into the ethical considerations surrounding Mark Zuckerberg's decisions regarding political advertising and the circulation of fake news on Facebook. It analyzes an article from The Guardian, which highlights the criticism Zuckerberg faced for allowing misleading political campaigns and advertisements with false claims, particularly in the context of the 2020 presidential elections. The report explores the ethical implications of these actions, contrasting Zuckerberg's justifications with the potential negative consequences of spreading misinformation. It applies ethical theories such as Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics to evaluate the ethical conflicts present. The analysis reveals that while Zuckerberg's intention to provide information is ethical, the promotion of fake news is highly unethical. The report concludes that Zuckerberg's decisions are ethically questionable, as they facilitate the spread of misinformation and potentially harm the public and political discourse.

Running head: COMPARITIVE BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
COMPARITIVE BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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Ethics over the years have been gaining a lot of importance and most of the business has
been focusing on operating their business in an ethical manner to create a positive organizational
work culture and to also be just to the employees as well as their stakeholders. According to
scholars, ethical operations of a business helps the organisation or the company acquire a
positive relationship in the market which is positive for the business as people would like to
associate with a business and also support a business which works ethically (McMurrian &
Matulich, 2016). This paper is going to focus on an article in the Guardian about the stance of
Mark Zuckerberg on not removing the political views and advertising and show that it is highly
unethical to promote and encourage the circulation of fake news.
The article stated that Mark Zuckerberg was highly criticized for promoting political
campaign that were misleading and would promote false news. He was also criticized by the
lawmakers which included Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat who had warned
Zuckerberg to remove the political advertisements which had false claims from the platform as
this could influence the 2020 presidential elections which could take a wrong way. On his behalf,
Zuckerberg refused to do so and he stated that he believed that people should be aware about the
political scenario and the claims made by the government and make the decision for themselves
and it did not have any intention or nor does it influence people and has some kind of
propaganda. He also stated as a democracy it is the right of the people to see for themselves the
remarks and statements made by politicians before casting their vote (Milman, 2019).
From the above article, the statement made by Zuckerberg of providing information and
making people aware of the statements made by politicians is ethical as it is important and
necessary for the citizens of the country to know about it to analyze and make a concrete
decision as to whom they would prefer to vote for the next elections. However, spreading of false

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news is highly unethical as it is highly misleading and citizens are not aware of the truth. In this
article, the issue that has been raised and that Facebook has been accused of is that they have
provided a platform to the extremist groups. The Guardian had recently reported the fact that
how two organisations that were white nationalists continued operating Facebook pages even
after a ban which they had promised to curb the issue of spreading of fake news (Milman, 2019).
According to the theory of Utilitarianism, the main thing that makes the actions wrong or
right is based on the consequences (Mill, 2016). Aligning this with the news article, it can be
seen that spreading of fake news through the political advertisements can lead to adverse
consequences as people might vote the person who is not suitable for the government which can
not only have negative consequences on the citizens but can also possess a threat for the country.
As a public platform, it is necessary of Facebook to not promote political advertisements that can
be misleading and which can create immense dissatisfaction.
Kantian ethics state that one should act in a way that they can rationally will that other
people should also act in the same manner and one should not treat people as means to an end
(Lindner & Bentzen, 2018). When analyzing the article aligning with this ethics it can be seen
that Facebook should promote political advertisements but not ones with false information as this
is incorrect and they would not want to acquire false information when they are going to operate
their business. They should not treat their customers as a means and should operate ethically to
provide them with what they deserve and not just have a capitalist mentality.
It can be seen that this entire scenario is highly unethical universally and it affects the
politicians in news who are being defamed because of the false information and also the people
as they do not have access to authentic news which has been influencing their decision making

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process to some extent. Many people stand with Zuckerberg as they believe that the
advertisements do not influence anyone but rather help people getting educated about the current
political scenario and the politicians and it is their right to know the truth. However, false
information is highly unethical and can lead to negative consequences thus making Zuckerberg
unethical in his decision.
In this article, it can be seen that there is ethical conflict as well as spreading fake news
through political advertisements is unethical however, Zuckerberg’s main motive is to work so
that he can make his company succeed and it is not his job to censor and ban advertisements
from where he generates revenues.
Spreading of fake news has become an issue and is considered to be unethical as it
provides misinformation and misleads people which can have negative impacts later in the near
future. Aligning with the ethical theories it has been evaluated that Zuckerberg has been
unethical in his decisions and should not stop political advertisements but should the
advertisements that promote fake news and false information as it is the right of the people to
know the truth and this not only influences the decision of the people to vote but maligns the
reputation of many politicians without them having any fault.

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Reference
Lindner, F., & Bentzen, M. M. (2018). A Formalization of Kant's Second Formulation of the
Categorical Imperative. arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.03160.
McMurrian, R. C., & Matulich, E. (2016). Building customer value and profitability with
business ethics. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 14(3), 83-90.
Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge.
Milman, O. (2019). Defiant Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook policy to allow false ads.
Retrieved 9 February 2020, from
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/02/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-
policy-fake-ads