Ethical Analysis of Social Media Use in Spreading Inappropriate Content

Running head: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
Information Technology Ethics
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
Introduction
The essay aims in providing an ethical analysis of the use of social media in spreading
contents that should not be circulated. The chosen case study that will be analyzed in this essay is
related to spreading of the Christchurch video in all online platforms. This content should not
have been circulated. The social media users can be blamed for the same along with the media
that informs people about the presence of a video online (Bogle, 2019). Nowadays, it becomes
easier for a video to go viral on social media particularly because of the increase of engagement
on that platform. The situation will be analyzed on basis of utilitarianism ethical theory, ethical
theory of deontology, the contract theory and theory of Virtue. These ethical theories will help in
easier analysis of the chosen scenario.
1. Utilitarianism Theory
The consequence based theory of Utilitarianism judges a particular situation on basis of
the consequence of the situation (Mulgan, 2014). The Utilitarianism theory of ethics indicates
that a situation will be ethical only if the end consequence of the activity is positive. Thus, this
ethical theory is based on moral system of producing desirable consequence or outcome
(Vaughn, 2015). Thus, according to this ethical perspective, a particular situation will be ethical
only if its consequence allows taking moral decisions.
Social media and its users are being blamed for making a video viral, which should not
have reached to the masses (Date, 2015). This is quite true mainly because the users are being
told online and on TV that there is a video on internet that is dangerous to be seen. This spiked
the search of the video on twitter. Therefore, the consequence of the scenario is not ethical at all.
Millions of people are being told about the video that led to the wide spread of the video. As a

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS
consequence of that, the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were forced to
remove those videos. The widespread circulation of the video could have been stopped if the
users were couscous enough to not share the video with their friends and family. The situation is
further analyzed on basis of the deontology theory.
2. Deontology Theory
The deontology theory of ethics judges a situation on basis of the actions related to a
particular situation (Chappell, 2014). If the action of a situation is wrong a particular situation
can never be ethical. This theory states that a moral system can be established if the actions
associated with a particular situation is correct (Haynes, 2016). The situation that is considered is
to be analyzed on basis of deontology theory.
The chosen article establishes the fact that the users and the news channel should be
cautious enough to understand that the action of spreading of fake news all over the social media
is wrong and should be avoided. The deontology theory of ethics never supports the idea of
circulation of news that can be dangerous or harmful. The Christchurch video spread rapidly
across the globe is a very small time and for that both users of social media and the news
channels can be blamed. The deontology theory of ethics does not support this kind of act and
therefore, the situation can be termed as unethical.
3. Contract Theory
The contract theory or the social contract theory establishes the morality of the situation
on basis of the contractual agreements among the different individual. This theory of ethics
mainly provides the motivation of being moral (Broad, 2014). This theory of ethics is therefore