Report: Business Ethics Analysis of Social Media Companies

This report examines the ethical issues faced by major social media platforms, specifically Google, Facebook, and Twitter. It delves into the ethical dilemmas these companies encounter, including privacy breaches, data collection practices, and copyright infringements. The report utilizes normative theories, such as consequentialism (utilitarianism) and non-consequentialism (virtue ethics), to analyze these issues. It explores the impact of user behavior, cyberbullying, and the role of social media in spreading information. The conclusion highlights the importance of ethical guidelines in the social media sector and provides recommendations for addressing these challenges. The analysis emphasizes the need for responsible data handling, user privacy protection, and adherence to ethical business practices within the rapidly evolving digital landscape. The report underscores the significance of ethical considerations for the future of social media and the companies that operate within it.

BUSINESS ETHICS IN
ACTION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Ethical issues faced by Google, Facebook and Twitter..........................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Ethical issues is defined as a problem or a situation where there is requirement of a
person or a particular organisation in order to choose between various alternatives that must be
evaluated as right or wrong (Achtenhagen, 2017). Thus, in following report, Social media sector
has been selected in which Google, Facebook and Twitter has been taken into consideration.
These are multinational companies of technology that are specialised in services that is related to
internet related products or services. These websites or social media platforms includes
technologies of online advertising, search engine. Social media are technologies that are based
on computers which leads in facilitating creation and also sharing of ideas, information and
many other forms of expression via networks and virtual communities. This sector refers to as
websites or applications that make users enable in order to create and share their content so that
they can participate in social networking.
In this report, ethical issues that has been faced by the three social media platforms has
been discussed in deeply with the help of Normative theories as consequentialist and Non-
consequentialist. In Consequentialist theory Utilitarianism and in Non consequentialist theory
Virtue ethics will be discussed. Further, this study or report is completely based on various ways
in which technologies have been deployed by the people. Thus, the actual focus of this is on
moral character of technology in order to show possibilities and also interventions in terms of
ethics.
It is not every time helpful that rules are different online. People are having lack of
tolerance level for the emails that are unexpected from favoured sites. Thus, crisis management
is the latest topic in which there are some of the things that has to be avoided. Thus, some of the
ethical issues that is faced by this sector includes Unreported endorsements, improper
anonymity, compromising privacy that is related to people, employees that are overly
enthusiastic and also using of online community in order to get free work. Further, if these issues
of social media is avoided than there is no more safety in this sector because this issues can be
increased which will be further done intentionally (Bertrand, 2018).
Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service company.
This company is based in Menlo Park in California. While. Twitter is an American online news
and social networking service on which the users post and interact with messages known as
tweets.
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Ethical issues faced by Google, Facebook and Twitter
The ethical dilemma of the Facebook Privacy Breach was a major scandal recently. This
scandal started when Cambridge analytica, a private company based in UK was identified to
have been utilising Facebook for their statistics for data mining (House of Commons Committee
of Public Accounts, 2016). Users of Facebook unknowingly shared their interest, education and
work-related history along with their religious and political affiliations (Kolhatar, 2017). Google
street view cars were roamed in China to photograph street scenes in order to create google
maps. Thus, while roaming and doing this, they founded Wi-Fi hotspot. Therefore, the data
protection of Germany requested some kind information from Google. They said that while
collecting information, they mistakenly collected various samples related to payload data that
was sent over the networks of Wi-Fi. Google claimed that it was the mistake of engineers that
modified the scanning software and provided by some other organisation (Chell, Spence, Perrini
and Harris, 2016). They mistakenly inserted the wrong sniffing code when they took an
experiment with that software and also failed in order to discover the error that occur while they
installed this software into street view cars. On the other hand, Facebook recent crisis is just
another issue related to privacy that the organisation is dealing with. In the year 2006 the
company faced user outrage due to the introduction of News Feed. Those issues related to
privacy are now center and front, loose handling of the company to handle data acquired by app
developers has cause the biggest crisis for the Facebook (Brunsden, 2017). The fact is that the
business model of Facebook is itself a reason of the issues. It offers free services, gather private
information of the users and then sell it to advertises and other entities. Along with Google and
Facebook, Twitter is another social media platform which faces issues related to data related to
individuals and organisation. User’s post that includes useful information on twitter can be
accessed by anyone, therefore it is a major concern for the company (Lanchester, 2017). Reusing
work of other people is also a major issue faced by Twitter. The information or data on the
internet is protected by copyright, nobody has legal right to copy people’s work of make it public
on the internet. These is another main issue twitter face.
Google was also facing the ethical issues that was among stakeholders. As their operation
in China had been created a storm of criticism when they agreed in support with this that is to
comply with demand of Government and also censor. Another issue or ethical dilemmas that
Google mainly faced includes issues that is related to privacy. The cited sector select and gather
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information related to data on those people who use their respective search engine. Thus, website
of this organisation states that all the information are been recorded in order to increase the
efficiency level of cited organisation Google. Thus, it is deleting cookies after two years. While,
this information can be used by Government to investigate on various informations and find out
individual that visited that websites. They have also raised the questions that is related to
privacy. Google has also faced with issue of Copyright Infringement. In order it was made
possible to view millions of volume online by Google books. Therefore, they generated lawsuit
over plan of Google in order to change some books without taking permission from the actual
holder of that particular copyright. The cited organisation argues for this that they will show only
small portion of that book if it is available fully and it is legal under law (Kudina and Verbeek,
2018).
To analyse the ethical dilemmas of social media sector, consequentialist and non-
consequentialist theory has been taken into consideration. Consequentialism is termed as class of
normative theories that is based on ethics. The holding of this is that consequences of one's
conduct and the judgement of that conduct in right or wrong way is the ultimate basis. In other
words, it differs in defining moral goods (Mattox Jr and et.al., 2017). There are two examples of
this theory that includes utilitarianism and hedonism.
Utilitarianism is termed as an idea in terms of actions as they are right or wrong in
morally way and also depending on effect it has on social media sector. In this theory the act of a
particular person is right in moral way only if the happiness that is produced by that individual is
as much as other person may perform at that same time. This act does not follow traditional
rules. As per the social media, this act allows user to post anything on social media that they
want their friends to look (Taplin, 2017). While the post is based on any political views and
religious beliefs than it always comes under virtual threats or reaction. In addition to this,
cyberbullying also takes place that can have huge impact on this sector. This type of behaviour
of an individual may cause anger. Therefore, according to utilitarianism act negative post must
not be posted and must be avoided. Because this type of posts can lead people in feeling
depressed and also they harm themselves.
There are some of the arguments that may go against this theory that includes that there
are many people who says that bullies are of no harm (Yu and et.al., 2018). All this has nothing
to do but they are causing harm to number of people. Sometimes this negative comments on
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social media can be useful and profitable for business as they can fix their problems which is
therefore addresses by their customers with negative comments on social media websites. But it
has also been analysed that this kind of negative comments must be posted only in business
websites for the review purpose so that they take it as a challenge. This will help business in
fixing their problem that is leading people to update negative reviews for a particular business on
a website. While to turn from negative comments into positive way is done and is possible only
by business, not by an individual.
Non consequentialist theory of ethics has been defined as general normative theory of
morality that is non consequentialist. This theory basically denies about the statement that
rightness or wrongness of conduct is therefore determined solely with help of goodness and
badness of consequences of rules towards which those act varies (Patterson, Wilkins and Painter,
2018).
Virtue ethics are those that basically provides as a framework. Virtue ethics is one of the
other three approaches that are used in normative theories of ethics. These ethics is basically
determined as one that emphasises the virtues or moral character in contrast of particular
approach that emphasises rules or duties. There are several distinctive features of virtue ethics
that makes it the most unique approach of ethics (Shvartzshnaider, Apthorpe, Feamster and
Nissenbaum, 2018). Further, it has been analysed that the world is moving rapidly and it is really
hard to find out about how best one can respond to this changing world. While in recent years it
has been granted into background that social media has become blinded by technological
behemoths power like Google, Facebook or Twitter (MartínezA, 2017). Today the glamorous
world in terms of social media and also digital future has now tarnished with conflicts in terms of
fake news and also data that are really helping in harvesting scandals. All these events have
evoked complaints in terms of ethical malpractice. Thus, there were variety of response that were
finding governance, regulatory and technical fixes. While lack of attention is therefore given in
order to examine assumptions in ethical manner that leads in shaping operations of a particular
business as all they assist in building the society that is full of information. In addition to this,
digital ethics along with values and principle sand also along with recommendations has
influenced the technology world in extreme manner rather than any other forces in this world
related to technology or social media. Virtue ethics defines the nature in contextual manner of
ethical dilemmas (Winkler and Zeadally, 2016). Further, there includes a fact that is required by
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the moral excellence in terms of skilled responsiveness of a person to the such type of contexts
that are changing. In addition to this, it has been claimed that the prudential wisdom is therefore
exhibited by the person that is virtuous and requires the thoughtfulness that are variable and also
entails careful study of that of particulars (Friend, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that there are number of ethical issues that is
faced by social media which includes Google, Facebook and Twitter. Further, it has been
analysed that rule of normative theories have been served as a guide towards the ethical
behaviour on sites that is related to social media like Google, Facebook and Twitter. It has been
analysed that the most faced problem or ethical issues is related to privacy. Therefore, various
recommendations has been provided in order to make this social media sector in finding way to
get all this under control.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The issues that was encompasses as Googles privacy policy and also ethical practice of
their business is actually a vast issue that they have to tackle. On data gathering backlash of
Google, it is really easy to trust such company when they ask to enter information on their
browsers. Therefore, the privacy concerns that were raised which includes that if anyone has
something that must be not known to others than Google must retain this information for
sometime and this becomes extremely important. Facebook and Twitter must make all
information available to that of authorities. They must also fix their bug in which it was allowed
to have access in unintended manner to some kind of private documents which was stored by
service. They must also build community engagement in order to maximise engagement on page
overall. Further, Google must also make their privacy easily visible and accessible so users may
not have to hunt around for search of it. They must also communicate the change in clear manner
if they enter into any type of deal or acquisitions that may affect the policy in terms of privacy.
They must also try to avoid passive language as we will or we may and must communicate in
multi layered approach across their services.
In addition to this, they must also provide with various tools that leads in managing
personal data of an individual between all services that are related to Google. While this can be
done by making present dashboard visible and more accessible. The other step that they can
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follow is to prepare statement that is basically related to Objections. The cited firm must also
present current privacy policy as a general guideline about Googles processing operations and
further references must be made to more detailed information about various processing. The
another way to avoid this is that they can develop interactive presentations that may help in
allowing users in order to explore the content that may have huge impact on the privacy related
to users. They must also allow users to explore those content in terms of notices that is related to
privacy without having to read much long and linear documents. Therefore, this are how this
social media sector including Google, Facebook and Twitter can improve and solve their ethical
issues.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Achtenhagen, L., 2017. Media Entrepreneurship—Taking Stock and Moving Forward.
Bertrand, C.J., 2018. Media ethics and accountability systems. Routledge.
Chell, E., Spence, L.J., Perrini, F. and Harris, J.D., 2016. Social entrepreneurship and business
ethics: Does social equal ethical?. Journal of business ethics. 133(4). pp.619-625.
Kudina, O. and Verbeek, P.P., 2018. Ethics from within: Google Glass, the Collingridge
dilemma, and the mediated value of privacy. Science, Technology, & Human Values,
p.0162243918793711.
Mattox Jr, G.T., and et.al., 2017. Personal site privacy policy. U.S. Patent 9,542,564.
Patterson, P., Wilkins, L. and Painter, C., 2018. Media ethics: Issues and cases. Rowman &
Littlefield.
Shvartzshnaider, Y., Apthorpe, N., Feamster, N. and Nissenbaum, H., 2018. Analyzing Privacy
Policies Using Contextual Integrity Annotations. arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.02236.
Winkler, S. and Zeadally, S., 2016. Privacy policy analysis of popular web platforms. IEEE
Technology and Society Magazine. 35(2). pp.75-85.
Yu, L., and et.al., 2018. Enhancing the description-to-behavior fidelity in android apps with
privacy policy. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. 44(9). pp.834-854.
Brunsden J., 2017. ‘EU efforts to impose heavier taxes on tech giants gather momentum’,
Financial Times, September 16th
Kolhatar S., 2017. ‘The Tech Industry’s Gender-Discrimination Problem’, New Yorker,
20thNovember
Lanchester J., 2017. ‘You are the product’, London Review of Books, August 17th, Vol. 39 No.
16 https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n16/john-lanchester/you-are-the-product
Taplin J., 2017. Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon have
Cornered Culture and What It Means for All of Us, Macmillan: London
MartínezA., 2017. Chaos Monkeys: Inside the Silicon Valley Money Machine,Ebury, London
Friend T., 2017. ‘Why Ageism Never Gets Old’, New Yorker, 20thNovember
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House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, 2016. Corporate tax settlements, Twenty-
fifth Report of Session 2015–16 Report, 23 February
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmpubacc/788/788.pdf
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