Strange Bedfellows: The
Conflicting (and
Conflicted) Relationship
Between Ethics and
Social Media
Dr. Thom Flamboe
Assistant Professor
Presentation College
It All Started When…
Top Three Social Media Sites
(ebizmba.com, 10-2014)
900,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors |
310,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
255,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors
Facebook
• Facebook (formerly [thefacebook]) is an online social networking service
headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
• Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his college
roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew
McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited
the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in
the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support
for students at various other universities and later to their high-school students.
Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old worldwide to
become a registered user of the website, although proof is not required.
Privacy Concerns
• Since 2010 the National Security Agency has been taking Facebook profile
information from users to discover who their allies, friends, and colleagues
are.
• In August 2013 High-Tech Bridge published a study showing that links
included in Facebook messaging service messages were being accessed by
Facebook for its own purposes. In January 2014 two users filed a lawsuit
against Facebook alleging that their privacy had been violated by this
practice.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)
Twitter
• Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140character messages called "tweets".
• Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users
access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is
based in San Francisco and has more than 25 offices around the world.
• Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah
Glass and by July 2006 the site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide
popularity, with more than 100 million users who in 2012 posted 340 million tweets per day.
The service also handled 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013 Twitter was one of the
ten most-visited websites, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet.“
(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter)
Linkedin
• LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in
December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for
professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million viewers.
As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in
more than 200 countries and territories.
• As of 2 July 2013, Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 65.6 million monthly
unique U.S. visitors and 178.4 million globally, a number that as of 29
October 2013 has increased to 184 million.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn)
What is Social Media?
• Social Media is the future of communication, a countless array of internet
based tools and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of
information. This new form of media makes the transfer of text, photos,
audio, video, and information in general increasingly fluid among internet
users. Social Media has relevance not only for regular internet users, but
business as well.
(Source: http://www.socialmediadefined.com/)
Ethics
• The basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. It
includes study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men and
women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land, concern for health
and safety and, increasingly, also for the natural environment. See also morality.
Read more:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ethics.html#ixzz3F0OJASI1
(Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ethics.html)
The Law and Social Media
• Expect to receive the same consequences online as in real life. Freedom of
speech is applicable to online communications, however you can still be fired
for anything. Personal responsibility.
• There is a ton of gray area – it all comes down to the details of each case. It’s
best to use your best judgment and common sense. If you have a doubt,
don’t post it. Once you do, it’s out there for good. It’s all about risk
assessment.
The Law
• Social networking users don't enjoy any of the immunities granted to social
networking sites under the law, so they should be careful to always act
appropriately when posting messages or files to the sites. The main areas
where users can get themselves into trouble are through the posting of
defamatory content or content that infringes on intellectual property rights. –
(See more at: http://technology.findlaw.com/modern-lawpractice/understanding-the-legal-issues-for-social-networking-sitesand.html#sthash.ZbwGaGRz.dpuf)
Concerns
• Taking photos of people at an event and sharing the photo on social media
sites is fairly low-risk. However, the more places you share the photo (i.e. in a
blog post or in promotional material) the higher your risk becomes as more
and more people view the image. There also tends to be more backlash when
they are photos of children.
Gaffes
• An email sent by a juror during a recent rape trial in Brown County could
lead to a request for guilty verdicts to be set aside or cited in a request for an
appeal.
• The email was sent to a group of the juror’s friends. It says to one recipient
in particular that, “with your quick mind and drive, you could out-lawyer at
least 50 percent of the folks I am watching right now and would be a great
match for the other 50 percent.”
• Aberdeen American News, April 14, 2014
Older Adolescents' Motivations for Social Network Site Use: The Influence of
Gender, Group Identity, and Collective Self-Esteem
To cite this article:
Valerie Barker. CyberPsychology & Behavior. April 2009, 12(2): 209-213. doi:10.1
• This study assessed motives for social network site (SNS) use, group belonging, collective
self-esteem, and gender effects among older adolescents. Communication with peer group
members was the most important motivation for SNS use. Participants high in positive
collective self-esteem were strongly motivated to communicate with peer group via SNS.
Females were more likely to report high positive collective self-esteem, greater overall use,
and SNS use to communicate with peers. Females also posted higher means for group-inself, passing time, and entertainment. Negative collective self-esteem correlated with social
compensation, suggesting that those who felt negatively about their social group used SNS
as an alternative to communicating with other group members. Males were more likely than
females to report negative collective self-esteem and SNS use for social compensation and
social identity gratifications.
Ethical factors to consider
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Internet Safety
Privacy issues for educators and students
Appropriate Use
Problems
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Cyberbullying
Photos
Comments – Slander?
Despair texts
Response to the Above
Basic Rules for Jurors
• • Do not discuss the case beyond telling others that you have been selected as a juror,
whether it's a civil or criminal case and how long the trial might last. After a trial ends, jurors
may speak freely about a case.
• • Do not discuss the case with other jurors until deliberations begin.
• • Do not try and gather information about the case aside from what's presented at trial.
• • Do not even casually visit with attorneys, the defendant, witnesses or others involved in
the case. Even an innocent conversation can cause concerns.
• • Do not read or listen to media accounts of the case until it's over. Avoid social media, such
as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Facebook Posts
Examples
Suggestions
• Use common sense. If you don’t want someone posting that about you,
don’t post it about someone else. If you’re worried about clicking “send” or
“post” there’s probably a reason, so don’t do it
• Know the rules. It’s easier to break them if you pretend they don’t exist, but
doing so opens you up for litigation, and backlash in an arena where news
travels fast.
(Source: http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/10/social-media-lawsmbmsp/)
Rules
(from Intel)
10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media
Policy
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1. Introduce the purpose of social media
2. Be responsible for what you write
3. Be authentic
4. Consider your audience
5. Exercise good judgment
10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media
Policy
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•
•
•
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6. Understand the concept of community
7. Respect copyrights and fair use
8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary info
9. Bring value
10. Productivity matters
(Source: http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/)
INTERNET SAFETY GUIDELINES
(Boy Scouts of America)
• Keep online conversations with everyone in public places, not in email.
• Do not give anyone online your real last name, phone numbers at home or school, your parents’
workplaces, or the name or location of your school or home address unless you have your parents’
permission first. Never give your password to anyone but a parent or other adult in your family.
• If someone sends or shows you email or any type of direct message/wall post with sayings that make
you feel uncomfortable, trust your instincts. You are probably right to be wary. Do not respond. Tell a
parent or trusted adult what happened.
• If somebody tells you to keep what’s going on between the two of you secret, tell a parent or guardian.
• Be careful to whom you talk. Anyone who starts talking about subjects that make you feel
uncomfortable is probably an adult posing as a kid.
INTERNET SAFETY GUIDELINES
• Pay attention if someone tells you things that don’t fit together. If one time an online “friend” says he or she is 12,
and another time says he or she is 14. That is a warning that this person is lying and may be an adult posing as a kid.
• Unless you talk to a parent about it first, never talk to anybody by phone if you know that person only online. If
someone asks you to call—even if it’s collect or a toll-free, 800 number—that’s a warning. That person can get your
phone number this way, either from a phone bill or from caller ID.
• Never agree to meet someone you have met only online at any place off-line, in the real world.
• Watch out if someone online starts talking about hacking, or breaking into other people’s or companies’ computer
systems; phreaking (the “ph” sounds like an “f ”), the illegal use of long-distance services or cellular phones; or
viruses (online programs that destroy or damage data when other people download these onto their computers).
• Promise your parent or an adult family member and yourself that you will honor any rules about how much time
you are allowed to spend online and what you do and where you go while you are online.