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Within the framework of cyberspace, active information and communication processes are taking place between persons who form self-regulating Internet communities. They exist without clearly defined national borders and allow maintaining various relations regarding the information circulating in the global infrastructure. The corresponding processes are accompanied by the development of a complex structural and functional environment of information and communication exchange and the emergence of new mechanisms for the formation of identity and socialization (Finnemore, 2018). They entail a significant acceleration of the interaction of many subjects participating in them and a change in the scale of ongoing socio-economic and socio-political events. Numerous problems of the Internet community can be traced on the example of social media platforms. In connection with the rapid development and mass distribution of this form of Internet communication, the problem of developing ethical approaches to their functioning is actualized. This paper aims to discuss ethical issues in social networks, as well as the responsibilities of social media platforms and their web hosting companies.
The growing importance of social media platforms can be considered one of the globalist trends due to the peculiarities of the development of social relations at the present stage. A social network is a platform for building connections that allows considering it a means of not only communication but also mass dissemination of information. The intensive development and massive use of the considered network resources complicate the content of the ethical responsibilities of participants in Internet communication (Finnemore, 2018). Ethical responsibility is an objective need to comply with the basic rules, requirements, principles, and foundations of a common community, to be responsible for violating social norms. It expresses the nature of the individuals relationship with society, the state, and other social groups. Ethical norms, mutual rights, and responsibilities are designed to ensure order and tranquility in the Internet community. In a cyber society, rights and obligations are formed based on different values about information and communication.
Virtual reality offers human interaction not with things but with simulations. The present existence of social institutions is described by three characteristics: non-material impact, the conventionality of parameters, and ephemerality. Cyberspace is a special area, where many aspects of social life become virtual (Finnemore, 2018). In this regard, online social interaction plays an increasing role in the public organization as a whole and structures public relations in a new way. Gradually, the border between the virtual and the real becomes so transparent that it is not clear who is the subject of real social relations, a virtual person or a real one. For ethical norms to have a regulatory impact on social relations of a new type, social media platforms and their web hosting companies must observe ethical principles and behave responsibly.
During the development of social networks, several attempts have been made to somehow streamline user interaction to exclude extreme forms of aggression, personal insults, bullying, and other antisocial forms of behavior. Any online etiquette is based on the rules of interpersonal ethics, including the basic rules of constructive communication. Codes of ethics include the inadmissibility of propaganda or incitement to racial, religious, and ethnic hatred or enmity (Finnemore, 2018). Participants in social media communications must consider themselves obligated to build their relations with the media on the principles of courtesy, trust, and mutual respect. They must consider the created pages and groups in social networks as official platforms for communication with the target audience. They are not allowed to use third-party intellectual property products and their private information on social media without the necessary permission. They must not disseminate deliberately false or defamatory information, but respect interlocutors, readers, competing organizations, and any groups of persons and communities.
However, there are many potential breaches of the social media codes of conduct. Various technical, moral, legal, social, political, and philosophical issues arise, for example, copyright protection and the right to privacy and freedom of speech. There are several main ethical problems associated with the use of information and communication technologies. First of all, this is the problem of information and communication privacy and related questions about the relationship between the principles of freedom and security (Finnemore, 2018). There is also a moral dilemma of control and limitation or non-interference in the life of the network space. An urgent and still not worked out problem is the issue of the status of intellectual property in the field of information technology. Of course, the problem of professional ethics is also important. The informational theory of democracy and the issue of the effectiveness of the establishment of e-democracy also need a deeper understanding. Besides, there is a range of issues associated with netiquette, that is, general rules of coexistence and interaction between network users.
Information on social media platforms is fraught with dangers of various nature, and the user is not insured from inaccurate or provocative information, including those that violate general moral norms. Thus, along with the undoubted advantages of social networks and their inclusion in the media system, there are real problems that require close attention from an ethical point of view. There are various types of violations of ethical norms in social networks (Finnemore, 2018). They are most often associated with issues of information reliability, impact on the psyche and behavioral reactions of the audience, as well as violations of the legal framework. Similar situations can be provoked by the high speed of dissemination of inaccurate information on social networks. Any news launched deliberately or accidentally, is transmitted instantly on the network. Considering that information on social media has a high credit of trust for the audience, it is often perceived uncritically and is not verified by other users.
Due to a whole range of ethical problems, social media platforms and their web hosting companies should combine the traditionally existing provisions of professional ethics with the risks of social networks. Thus, the behavior and values of all users will constitute the ethical principles of this group of society. Thus, ethics in social networks can be viewed as a set of norms of behavior in the framework of the information and communication process (Yaokumah, 2020). In the context of social media, all moral and ethical standards are based, first of all, on the special social responsibility of users of social media resources, who are simultaneously content creators and its consumers. Therefore, one of the topical directions in the study of the information content of social networks in the context of moral and ethical norms is the study of the opinion and media behavior of the audience.
This ethical approach is based on utilitarianism, namely, a normative program that puts forward as a criterion for the moral correctness of actions or the justification of private rules, the amount of the summed utility produced by them. Utility means happiness, pleasure, well-being, the satisfaction of preferences, and the realization of the interests of individuals (Yaokumah, 2020). The general structure of utilitarianism as a normative program is determined by the following interrelated statements. First, there is only one good that has moral significance; this is a benefit or utility. Second, this good is measurable and is subject to the summation of utility. Third, the summation of utility in relation to groups of people suggests that a decrease in utility affecting one person can be compensated for an increase in utility affecting another. Fourth, what concerns people, each portion of usefulness is of equal importance.
Thus, the regulation of ethical norms in social media platforms must require the promotion of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. There is a large number of areas in cyberspace that require not legislative, but ethical regulation, not government control, but the self-control of key players. In this regard, documents appeared that normalize the life of social media platforms, and codes of conduct in a wide variety of situations of professional activity (Yaokumah, 2020). These ethical codes record a large set of principles, norms, and rules of conduct, which constitutes the ethical basis. These norms are not as strict as the legislative ones because of non-identical interpretations of similar moral situations. However, there are independent organizations that study cyberethics all over the world, for example, the Association for Computer Machinery, the International Center for Information Ethics, and the non-profit human rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (Yaokumah, 2020). The latter was created to protect the rights laid down in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in connection with the emergence of new communication technologies.
Social networks were conceived as self-organizing communities and attempts to establish any additional restrictions entail negative reactions and strong public outcry from the Internet community. In the virtual environment, there are self-regulation measures concerning social networks provided by web hosting companies (Yaokumah, 2020). Thus, hosts such as Amazon and Google are also responsible for the ethical norms of social media platforms. For example, hosting companies may disconnect social network servers from their services in case of unethical behavior. Recently, Amazon, the host of Parler, has disconnected this social network from the services of the AWS cloud platform to get rid of a resource that violates some moral principles.
Today, in the era of the dominance of social media platforms, considerable attention should be paid to their ethical component. In modern conditions of the global development of socio-economic and public life based on information and communication technologies, the main focus is on the organization and development of cyberspace. This in many ways creates a new reality for both individuals and organizations, as well as states. Thus, given the importance of state interests, social media platforms and their hosting companies should determine the nature and measure of regulation of the dissemination of information and control over the virtual space. Due to the potential threats arising from the functioning of social networks and other institutions of Internet communication, the creation of codes of conduct is becoming a promising direction. Ethical norms should ensure a balance of interests of all participants in such communication and their harmonization with the foundations of public law and order.
References
Finnemore, M. (2018). Ethical dilemmas in cyberspace. Ethics and International Affairs, 32(4), 457-462.
Yaokumah, W. (2020). Predicting and explaining cyber ethics with ethical theories. International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism (IJCWT), 10(2), 46-63.
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