W4 Facebook

Read the Washington Post article by Will Oremus, Facebook keeps researching its own harms — and burying the findings, found here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/16/facebook-files-internal-research-harms/ (Links to an external site.)

Write an argument which answers the question: Does Facebook have an ethical responsibility to reveal information which shows the negative outcomes of its product AND does it have a moral responsibility to correct these problems?

In your answer use one of the three ethical theories discussed in chapter 3 of the textbook:

Utilitarianism

Virtue Ethics

Ethics of the Person

This assignment is not asking you to express your opinion or feelings about Facebook’s conduct. It is asking you to apply an ethical theory to determine whether Facebook’s actions were ethical.  Your argument should present both your logical conclusion and your premises (reasons or support for your conclusion).  Underline your conclusion.

W4 Facebook Answer

The utilitarian ethical theory holds that an act/decision is said to be good and right if it can produce the greatest number of benefits or good for the greatest number of people. The key is to calculate whether certain decisions produce greatest good for the majority. If an action is said to benefit only few then it is deemed unethical and should be avoided. In addition, if an action is said to produce suffering or pain to the greatest number of people then the act should be avoided because it is unethical and bad.

W4 Facebook Answer

  If utilitarianism is applied, then Facebook has the responsibility to reveal the negative outcomes of its product and it also have a moral responsibility to correct these problems. As an ethical theory, utilitarianism posits that an act is ethically correct if it produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. A variant of utilitarian thinking is cost-benefit analysis, which holds that a course of action should be adopted if its benefits outweigh the costs.