Information Technology Ethics: Blame on Social Media for Christchurch Video

This document discusses the ethical implications of the spread of violent content on social media platforms, using classical ethical theories. It includes an essay based on a media article and case study, and provides recommendations for addressing the issue.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND MATHS, Charles Sturt University
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
Assignment 4: Applying Ethical Theory
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
Task
Based on the media articles or case studies listed below:
1. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-03-19/facebook-to-blame-for-
christchurch-live-video-but-so-are-we/10911238
 Write an essay based on your argument visualisation created in Assessment 3
(attached as a file) and the media article or case study you selected in
Assessment 3. Use the title of the article/case study provided in interact 2 as the
title of your essay, so that the lecturer knows which article you are analysing.
 Undertake further research about your chosen case, to assist you in analysing
and discussing it in your essay.
 Analyse the article/case study from the perspective of four classical ethical
theories including utilitarianism, deontology, contract, and virtue. Your essay
should present well-reasoned arguments for your assessments and
recommendations.
 You should not introduce new arguments in your essay that were not
contained in your argument visualisation, and your essay should contain
all of the arguments contained in your visualisation.
 Write an overall conclusion that justifies your recommendations made in your
essay.
 Include a Reference list at the end of your work, in the correct APA referencing
style, corresponding to in-text citations. The word limit for the essay is 1000
words +/-10%. Headings, citations and references do not count towards the word
limit, but quotations do.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
1. Introduction
A very recent case has resurrected in the latest times, and this has showed how the social media
platform provides the massive spreading of violent content to millions of users in a short span of
time. The effect of such technological utility and the sharing of these violent videos to share
randomly on the social media, such as Facebook would thus be analyzed for its ethical implications
on the human psychology and how this could affect adversely to the users (Bogle, 2019). The ethical
implications would thus be analyzed with the help of the classic ethical theories of utilitarianism,
deontology, virtue and contract to analyze how ethically incorrect was the entire act of random
spreading of videos and content without checking the context of the posts as below.
2. Utilitarianism Theory
The utilitarianism theory of normative ethical conduct states any code of conduct as right or wrong
based on the outcome of the act and its effect on the people or the general mass as a whole. This
would be regarded for this analysis thus to investigate the act by Facebook to share over millions of
the Christchurch attack videos and its effect on the users of Facebook to analyze if the act has been
an ethical misconduct or have been morally correct by all means. The live stream video of the attack
has been spread over a million times (Couldry, 2015). The simple tools that allow the sharing videos
live streaming videos and uploading them makes it easy for any person using the application to be
the witness of the attacks even if the person or the user is unwilling to. The act was such that the
video was used over a million times by various political and terrorist organizations to download copy
or share the material over other social media sites as well.
3. Deontology Theory
The deontological ethics is a normative ethical theory which clarifies the action behind a particular
act to be ethically and morally correct or not, rather than thinking about its consequences to be
ethically or morally correct. In this particular case where the social media website alone cannot be
limit for sharing of such violent videos over the world and helping in millions of share, it must also be
kept in mind that the over 1.5 million shares of the videos where not just formulated by the social
media website alone (Christians et al., 2015). People who use Facebook are also responsible for this
particular case as before thinking that this was something to be informing to the legislative
authorities, the people chose to share the matter over different social media platforms. It was even
founded various terrorist groups and political parties also downloaded and share the video to other
social media websites and platforms just to showcase the attack or use it in some other way that
would not enhance the lives of other people but to fulfill their own selfish needs. The consequences
in this case do not matter as whatever is required in this case is the action behind every person
(Patterson, Wilkins & Painter, 2018). Rather than handling situation in the much more morally
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
correct way, the people have chosen the path of sharing the violence over the social media website
without thinking about the consequences it will have on the mindset of people.
4. Virtue Theory
Other than the utilitarianism theory of ethics, that depends on the consequences of an action and
the ontology theory that follows the rules behind an action, the virtue ethics theories mostly focuses
on the character of an individual that helps in making the individual develop ethical thinking then
acting about with the help of set rules (Kulju et al., 2016).
In this case as well it was found that the social media website did not consider what implications
could the sharing of such of violent live video stream have an impact on the sociology and
psychology of people. The organization does not even hands the application developed to find if the
ability that is providing the users has any filtering quality to understand the content of the things
that they have been sharing online (Ananny, 2016). Since it is a public website, they should keep this
in mind that a content of one creator is being visible to all the others and creates an impact on the
minds of these people as well. Thus, the ethical theory of virtue was violated.
5. Contract Theory
The contract theory is especially based upon the outcome of an act or an action on the entire society
consisting of the entire population at once. Therefore, speaking of this particular case, where
Christchurch attack and its live streaming and random sharing over the social media websites
created search a big mental breakdown for the people watching it was another reason why it was
not supposed to be shared at such a random basis. Facebook has never developed the idea of
analyzing the content of any post done to the website by users (Banks, 2018). This is an article on
the terms because the website is available for public access. If not the normal population, various
other organizations spreading terror to the human beings can also so formidably create content over
the internet and spread it randomly. There have been various instances before this case as well
where the assassinations of people were posted in public, resulting into mental breakdown of
numerous people watching (Barlem & Ramos, 2015). The unethical means of sharing of this attack
as also the similar effect on the entire population, denying the act as followed according to the
contract theory of ethics.
6. Conclusion
Therefore in conclusion it can be said that the massive attack on the Christchurch that was available
to be streamed and shared on Facebook was an article on various terms. It was not ethical for both
the organization of Facebook and the millions of people sharing the video on a public social media
platform. Thus, it is important to clarify the unethical means of conduct regarding this case with the
help of the ethical theory of deontology, utilitarianism, virtue and contract. The above analysis has
gone through the entire case and it has presented and analysis based on the case study.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
References
Ananny, M. (2016). Toward an ethics of algorithms: Convening, observation, probability, and
timeliness. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 41(1), 93-117.
Banks, C. (2018). Criminal justice ethics: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Barlem, E. L. D., & Ramos, F. R. S. (2015). Constructing a theoretical model of moral
distress. Nursing Ethics, 22(5), 608-615.
Bogle, A. (2019). Facebook and its users helped spread trauma of Christchurch video. Retrieved from
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-03-19/facebook-to-blame-for-christchurch-live-
video-but-so-are-whttps://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-03-19/facebook-to-blame-for-
christchurch-live-video-but-so-are-we/10911238e/10911238
Christians, C. G., Richardson, K. B., Fackler, M., Kreshel, P., & Woods, R. H. (2015). Media Ethics:
Cases and Moral Reasoning, CourseSmart eTextbook. Routledge.
Couldry, N. (2015). Listening beyond the echoes: Media, ethics, and agency in an uncertain world.
Routledge.
Kulju, K., Stolt, M., Suhonen, R., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2016). Ethical competence: A concept
analysis. Ethics, 23(4), 401-412.
Patterson, P., Wilkins, L., & Painter, C. (2018). Media ethics: Issues and cases. Rowman & Littlefield.
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
Do not remove the following marking sheet.
Marking Sheet
Criteria Standards
Marks
awarde
d
Classical
Ethical
Theory
(Value 60%)
HD: Demonstrates an excellent ability at applying ethical theories to the ethical
issues. (51-60)
DI: Demonstrates a good ability at applying ethical theories to the ethical issues.
(45-50.4)
CR: Makes a genuine attempt at applying the ethical theories to the ethical
issues. (39-44.4)
PS: The ethical theories do not link well with the ethical issues. (30-38.4)
FL: The ethical theories are not properly applied to the ethical issues. (0-29.4)
Writing &
structure
(Value 20%)
HD: Language features and structures are used to convey meaning effectively,
concisely, unambiguously, and in a tone appropriate to the audience and
purpose with no spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors. (17-20)
DI: Well developed skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Fluent writing
style appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar & spelling
accurate. (15-16.8)
CR: Good skills in expression & clear presentation of ideas. Mostly fluent writing
style appropriate to assessment task/document type. Grammar & spelling
contains a few minor errors. (13-14.8)
PS: The text contains frequent errors in spelling, grammar, word choice, and
structure, lacks clarity, and is not concise, but the meaning is apparent to the
reader with some effort. (10-12.8)
FL: Rudimentary skills in expression & presentation of ideas. Not all material is
relevant &/or is presented in a disorganised manner. Meaning apparent, but
writing style not fluent or well organised. Grammar & spelling contains many
errors. (0-9.8)
Conclusion
(Value 10%)
HD: Superior conclusion that ties the results of the analysis together into a
coherent, logically valid & convincing argument. (8.5-10)
DI: Very high standard conclusion that ties the results of the analysis together
into a coherent, logically valid & convincing argument. (7.5-8.4)
CR: High standard conclusion that ties the results of the analysis together into a
coherent, logically valid & convincing argument. (6.5-7.4)
PS: Rudimentary conclusion that provides a convincing argument. (5-6.4)
FL: Sub-standard (or no) conclusion. (0-4.9)
Referencing
(Value 10%)
HD: Referencing is comprehensive, demonstrates academic integrity, and
conforms exactly to APA style conventions. (8.5-10)
DI: Very good referencing, including reference list and citations. High quality
references. (7.5-8.4)
CR: Good referencing, including reference list and citations. Good quality
references. (6.5-7.4)
PS: Referencing is comprehensive, mostly accurate according to APA style
conventions, and demonstrates academic integrity. Some minor errors or
omissions in style and formatting choices (e.g. italics, punctuation, etc) don’t
impact on the transparency and traceability of the source, or demonstration of
academic integrity. (5-6.4)
FL: Sub-standard (or no) referencing. Poor quality (or no) references. (0-4.9)
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: BLAME ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHRISTCHURCH VIDEO
Total
Marks
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