Assignment Question
OPTION 1: TECHNOLOGY, CENSORSHIP AND PRIVACY In November 2016, the New York Times reported that Facebook has developed software that would allow them to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas. The software would allow a third party outside of Facebook (e.g. a government) to determine what would be censored on Facebook in their territory or nation. The tool was developed specifically to help the company get into China, which has banned Facebook since 2009 because of strict censorship rules. If made available, it could, of course, also be used by any other governments (Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, the U.S., etc.) to similar effect. Bc these countries disallowed people from seeing unbiased information During that time, the issue of fake news (literally made up news) and false news (new with falsehoods) began to spread on Facebook for profit or political purposes. Many believe that they have had a powerful negative effect on the 2016 US election and virtually every other election all over the world, since then. Others are concerned that Facebook helps spread hate and intolerance, and enables cyber-bullying. While initially rejecting calls for self-censorship and any responsibility for the spread of information through its platform, Facebook then promised to reconsider the issue. Assume that they are still considering the matter and have not yet announced a policy on this issue. In our recent workshop, you considered the responsibilities of companies such as Facebook in the face of potential government censorship and requests for user information. Among the moral reasons Facebook may have to allow governments to control what would be censured on Facebook in their countries, are its responsibilities to its shareholders to maximize profits and potential responsibilities to others who are impacted by its actions. Among these could be its users, employees, and communities in which it operates.
Imagine you are Facebook’s CEO and write a letter to the American public explaining and justifying your decision about how your company’s principled approach to this problem: Your letter should do the following:
1. Present the different moral considerations bearing on your decision Moral considerations are the things that go into your decision. They’re the various reasons that you’re weighing and that are motivating you to reach a conclusion about the policy you should have. Note: Show me that you see the complexity in the situation you’re addressing – that your weighing considerations that seem to recommend conflicting courses of action.
2. Identify the value conflict(s) that make these decisions challenging. (e.g. compassion vs. good outcomes for the world, or safety vs. innovation). Note: Again, show me that you see the complexity in the situation you’re addressing. What values (something that is important) stand in conflict in the situation as you see it.
3. Present your company’s principled position on fake news, false news, hate speech, and offensive speech (inc. speech found offensive by adherents of a religion). Explicitly state what this principled position will be.
4. Present your company’s principled position on what it would take for you to ban/de-platform a user from your platform and explain whether you would treat politicians or celebrities differently than other users.
5. Justify your position in relation to the model of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that you believe best captures a company’s (not just yours but any corporation’s) obligations. Explain how the principled positions expressed earlier are in line with this CSR model. To do this you should explicitly state the CSR model and explain why you believe it accurately portrays what ALL companies are responsible for. Remember the 4 models are competing with each other and so are mutually-exclusive ideas about what we should think about the responsibilities of (all) companies. 6. Your paper should make use (and cite) of at least four relevant and credible sources (e.g. academic journals, NY Times, Time Magazine, etc.). These should all be placed in a work cited page at the end of your paper (either the APA or MLA citation format is fine).
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