Social Media Industry: Evaluating the Need for Further Regulation

This report analyzes the ethical issues within the rapidly growing social media industry, focusing on the UK context. It identifies key ethical concerns such as misinformation, data privacy breaches, and plagiarism, and examines the inadequacy of current regulations, including the Computer Misuse Act, Communication Act, and Data Protection Act. The report discusses ethical theories like utilitarianism and deontological ethics and their relevance to addressing these issues. It further explores the challenges of globalization in social media, including data sharing and the difficulty in identifying influencers. The report also assesses the role of self-regulation, such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and government oversight, highlighting limitations and the need for stricter monitoring of content. Finally, it recommends further regulations to ensure ethical practices and protect user data.

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA INDUSTRY 0
Business Ethics

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Ethical issue in social media industry
In today’s time, social media industry is fast growing industry with growing number of
customers. Millions of people are active on social media recently and these are growing at a
greater phase. The main purpose of the paper is to analysis the ethical issue that are present in
social media industry. In the essay, the discussion is carried on the theories of ethics. Besides
this, the discussion is also done on the various acts made for the social media industry. There
are various changes required in the rules and regulations made for the social media. These
changes are highlighted in the essay which can be taken by the government for better and
smooth functioning. After the globalization, social media has presented the various
challenges and these challenges are explained in the essay. At the end of the essay, some
recommendations are given for the better use of social media in order to remove the issues
that are faced from this.
Social media plays an important role in the life of people at United Kingdom. From the
report, it is founded that the total number of users in UK for social media were about 39
million. The estimation of increment is estimated to reach at 42 million. In 2016, 67% online
adults are active on Facebook. The people of United Kingdom are too much active on social
media. In today’s time, social media industry is facing various ethical issues (Denecket et al,
2015). It is true that ethics has become a serious concern for the social media industry and
there are various laws related to the use of social media. Any unethical matter can results in
loss of customers, sales, as well as it can lead to various laws on the industry. The first ethical
issue is related to giving the incorrect information. The use of social media in an ineffective
manner can lead to the risk for social media industry. For example- employee’s repercussions
on the customer in respect of the company product in various social media websites will not
only violate the code of conduct in organization. It will lead to the negative responses on the
part of customers (Asur and Huberman, 2010). In UK, Serco Group has founded the efficient
way in dealing with the issue related to social media. In this industry, all the employees are
allowed to the use the Facebook page in order to discuss all the issues as well as
disagreements. Besides this, the main issue is related to the companies who are involved in
plagiarising or taking the information from others without or with any intention (Garnham,
2015). In this case, the establishment of breach of contract become tough. As a result, it may
lead overwhelming of the cases of court or it can also lead to extensive.

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There are various rules and regulations related to the social media industry. Some of the laws
are computer misuse act, communication act, officials secrets act, privacy and electronic
communication act, and data protection act. The first law related to computer misuse act is
related to the unauthorised access on the computer material. Therefore, if any person will
caught to misuse the computer will be liable with the penalty that will come under in this law.
This act specifies the different offences of hacking. The next act is “official secrets act” that
was incorporated in 1989. This act deals with the national security. It helps in keeping the
entire information secret related to official secret. As per the section 2, legal action is taken
for breaching this act. It is an excellent law that was introduces by the government for
keeping the data safe. By enactment of this law, person thinks twice before leaking any
information of official. Communication Act formed in 2003that consolidates the broadcasting
regulators as well as telecommunications in United Kingdom. This act has a number of
provisions. The banning of political advertising on radio and television is the one that come
under the provision of this act (Beck, 2018). The other provision in this act is access of
internet with no intention of paying. AAs there are people who did not pay any amount for
using the internet and they have to fulfil the penalties that are described under this law. When
this act came into force, it has replaced the telecommunication act 1984. This act is one of the
most essential source of UK telecommunication law. The other act is “Data Protection act”
that was enacted in the year 1998. This act was formed to make the new provisions for
regulating the procession of each information that is related to individuals relating to the
gaining, holding, using or disclosing of such information’s. The leaking of data is one such
problem that is spreading across the world. This has become the serious issue which is
essential to address (Fuchs, 2017). As a result, this act was formed to protect the data of
individuals as well as organization whose data got viral. The last rule is Privacy and
electronic communication. It was formed in the year 2003. It is a law in the United Kingdom
that is unlawful by transmitting any automated recorded message for the purpose of direct
marketing without taking any consent of the subscriber. TH key point of this legislation is
that it is not lawful to send any direct marketing to someone who is not granted the
permission.
The current ethical issues in social media industry require various changes in the regulations
made for social media. Due to increasing issue at grater phase, it requires the strong rules and
regulations such as restrictions in taking the data from any other person’s account or using
other’s information. The various ethical theories can help largely for the ethical issues. The

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first theory of ethics is Utilitarian theory. It includes all the bad, as well as good that is
produces by the act whether it is arising after the act or during the performance (Mill, 2016).
In order to know the consequence of actions, it relies upon the theory of intrinsic value. This
theory helps in providing the answer to question, “What a person should act in order to
produce the best possible output.” By applying this theory to every ethical issue, the output
and the consequence of outcome will come to know in effective manner. This will also help
in increasing the good things and reducing the negative things. In social media industry also,
there is need to know the exact consequence of the issue and reducing its negative impact by
taking suitable course of action (Broad, 2014) The other theory of ethics is Deontological
ethics. It places the emphasis on the morality and duty of human actions. In this theory, an
action is taken as morally good due to some of the features of the action but not because of
the action is good. For example- if a data is being stolen but the action of that stealing of data
is good for the society then it is considered to be morally good. In this way, it holds that some
of the acts are morally obligatory in spite of their consequences for human welfare.
Globalization is a situation in which the available cultural and social influences or the good
and services become available all over the world. Among this, the agenda of social media is
at top. Social media in one such technique that allows the user to connect with millions of
users scattered around the world (Beck, 2018). Organizations also use various social media
such as twitter, instagram and Facebook to inform about the events to public. There are
various challenges related to the globalisation of social media. As per the study presented, it
is founded that social media is for reaching the wider market base. However, it presents
various challenges for the social media industry. The challenges related to the globalization
of social media industry are to measure or track the success of this industry. In order to know
the engagement of audience, it presents various challenges. Due to wider reach of social
media, it started facing the problems related to identification of influencer in order to carry
the brand massage. Due to the globalization, social media industry receives wider reach in the
market. Data has started sharing among the wider population that has presented various
challenges. Due to this, it becomes somewhat difficult to find out the person behind the
stealing of any data or information of the organization (Goddard, 2017). Due to the wide
publicity of information from the social media, any person can see the information and take
the wrong use. It becomes difficult for companies to set the limits for sharing their data.
There are times when wrong use of information is being taken and circulate by taking its
worn use. This results in wrong image of company in front of public.

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Due to the globalization, various regulations come into force that will monitor the limit of
using social media. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is one such example of the
impact of globalization on social media (Datoo, 2018). This regulation was come in European
law for protecting the data and privacy of all the individuals. As data breached was the
common problem in the society and industries. Information’s get stolen or lost were into the
hand of people who know how to hack the data. Therefore, GDPR ha come into force that
will ensure the personal data of the company gathered legally. The person who has the
responsibility of collecting and managing the data is obliged to protect it from exploitation or
any misuse (Goddard, 2017).
Self-regulation sin the industry is made for the proper functioning of the social media in the
industries as well as for assuring the practices ethically. Self-regulations are developed by
industries themselves in order to corporate with the government for better functioning. For
example- there are various regulations adopted by the industries that contain a set of rules and
regulations apart from government rules and regulations. CSR is one such example of the
self-regulation. Corporate social responsibilities in the each industry are used for ensuring the
proper use of various things in the organization (Schwartz, 2017). It is essential element of
every industry in order to use the data’s in an effective manner. However, various industries
are not using the corporate social responsibility I their industry. They are not using as there
are not strict rules made for using the CSR policy in business. Besides the CSR, there are
various others industry guidelines, standards. Due to the non-compulsion of using it, firms are
not paying heed towards it and it is creating many Problems such as breaching of data on
social media, ineffective use of social media policies that is made for the right purpose.
Various industries also have complaint handling schemes in their organization. This is also
not adequate in various situations (Suliman, Al-Khatib and Thomas, 2016). Firms in today’s
time also do not pay attention regarding the complaints of employees. Government also do
not indulge too much in the self-regulation activities of industries. Due to this, sometimes
breach if information come in front of public. In today’s time, there is need to pay more
attention toward the social media activities that is taken up by the industries. It became
essential for the industries to ensure that it is not a burden for them. It should also become a
burden in terms of too much cost especially for the small business enterprises. It is also
essential to decrease the anti-competitive prospective of industry schemes regarding the self-
regulation. In this way, there is need for further regulations to set up which will do the strict
monitoring of using the contents on social media.

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Various limitations are related to the ethical issue concerned for the social media industry.
Taking into the current case of Facebook scandal, that clearly states that there are still
limitations in the regulation of social media industry. In the scandal of Facebook, the 1500
apps of third party get access the unposted Facebook pictures of approx. 6.8 million users. It
states that there are no strict regulations for the use of social media (Alleman, 2018). If these
regulations will not ensure the strict actions on part of any fraud or scandal activity, it will
continue to happen. Besides this, there are various ethical issue happen which do not come in
front of public due their non-accessibility. Millions of lives are facing issue due to the ease of
corrupting the data from any other is account. People are also doing these unethical things
continuously due to unavailability of any strict action towards it. If this will continue to
persist, it will create the people for industries in future. Various useful information’s will leak
by taking the data from the company’s account (Sowell, 2014). Therefore, it is now essential
to take the strict actions against the people who are indulging in unethical practices related to
the social media (Uwaya, 2018). There should be strict rules for taking the consent before
taking any other is data. This will help in reducing the unethical practices. Besides this, there
should also be regulations for disclosing the data. Government can also introduce the policy
on social media industry. This will help in reducing the come largely. In this way, all these
limitations can be come to an end by the proper framing of rules and regulations.
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that social media industry is facing
various ethical issues related to the leaking of information. There various ethical issues that
are associated with the social media industry. Due to no strict rules and regulation associated
with social media, the scandals are increasing day by day. Facebook scandal is one of the
biggest examples of misuse of social media strategy. In spite of various regulations made for
the social media, each day new scandals come in front of the public due to the misuse of data
from social media. It requires a serious action on the part of people and government. The
strong rules and laws of the government can remove the ethical issue to some extent.

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