Ethical Issues in the Social Media Industry
In today’s time, social media industry is fast growing industry with growing number of customers. Millions of people are active on social media recently and these are growing at a greater phase. The main purpose of the paper is to analysis the ethical issue that are present in social media industry. In the essay, the discussion is carried on the theories of ethics. Besides this, the discussion is also done on the various acts made for the social media industry. There are various changes required in the rules and regulations made for the social media. These changes are highlighted in the essay which can be taken by the government for better and smooth functioning. After the globalization, social media has presented the various challenges and these challenges are explained in the essay. At the end of the essay, some recommendations are given for the better use of social media in order to remove the issues that are faced from this.
Social media plays an important role in the life of people at United Kingdom. From the report, it is founded that the total number of users in UK for social media were about 39 million. The estimation of increment is estimated to reach at 42 million. In 2016, 67% online adults are active on Facebook. The people of United Kingdom are too much active on social media. In today’s time, social media industry is facing various ethical issues (Denecket et al, 2015). It is true that ethics has become a serious concern for the social media industry and there are various laws related to the use of social media. Any unethical matter can results in loss of customers, sales, as well as it can lead to various laws on the industry. The first ethical issue is related to giving the incorrect information. The use of social media in an ineffective manner can lead to the risk for social media industry. For example- employee’s repercussions on the customer in respect of the company product in various social media websites will not only violate the code of conduct in organization. It will lead to the negative responses on the part of customers (Asur and Huberman, 2010). In UK, Serco Group has founded the efficient way in dealing with the issue related to social media. In this industry, all the employees are allowed to the use the Facebook page in order to discuss all the issues as well as disagreements. Besides this, the main issue is related to the companies who are involved in plagiarising or taking the information from others without or with any intention (Garnham, 2015). In this case, the establishment of breach of contract become tough. As a result, it may lead overwhelming of the cases of court or it can also lead to extensive.
There are various rules and regulations related to the social media industry. Some of the laws are computer misuse act, communication act, officials secrets act, privacy and electronic communication act, and data protection act. The first law related to computer misuse act is related to the unauthorised access on the computer material. Therefore, if any person will caught to misuse the computer will be liable with the penalty that will come under in this law. This act specifies the different offences of hacking. The next act is “official secrets act” that was incorporated in 1989. This act deals with the national security. It helps in keeping the entire information secret related to official secret. As per the section 2, legal action is taken for breaching this act. It is an excellent law that was introduces by the government for keeping the data safe. By enactment of this law, person thinks twice before leaking any information of official. Communication Act formed in 2003that consolidates the broadcasting regulators as well as telecommunications in United Kingdom. This act has a number of provisions. The banning of political advertising on radio and television is the one that come under the provision of this act (Beck, 2018). The other provision in this act is access of internet with no intention of paying. AAs there are people who did not pay any amount for using the internet and they have to fulfil the penalties that are described under this law. When this act came into force, it has replaced the telecommunication act 1984. This act is one of the most essential source of UK telecommunication law. The other act is “Data Protection act” that was enacted in the year 1998. This act was formed to make the new provisions for regulating the procession of each information that is related to individuals relating to the gaining, holding, using or disclosing of such information’s. The leaking of data is one such problem that is spreading across the world. This has become the serious issue which is essential to address (Fuchs, 2017). As a result, this act was formed to protect the data of individuals as well as organization whose data got viral. The last rule is Privacy and electronic communication. It was formed in the year 2003. It is a law in the United Kingdom that is unlawful by transmitting any automated recorded message for the purpose of direct marketing without taking any consent of the subscriber. TH key point of this legislation is that it is not lawful to send any direct marketing to someone who is not granted the permission.
Acts Governing the Social Media Industry
The current ethical issues in social media industry require various changes in the regulations made for social media. Due to increasing issue at grater phase, it requires the strong rules and regulations such as restrictions in taking the data from any other person’s account or using other’s information. The various ethical theories can help largely for the ethical issues. The first theory of ethics is Utilitarian theory. It includes all the bad, as well as good that is produces by the act whether it is arising after the act or during the performance (Mill, 2016). In order to know the consequence of actions, it relies upon the theory of intrinsic value. This theory helps in providing the answer to question, “What a person should act in order to produce the best possible output.” By applying this theory to every ethical issue, the output and the consequence of outcome will come to know in effective manner. This will also help in increasing the good things and reducing the negative things. In social media industry also, there is need to know the exact consequence of the issue and reducing its negative impact by taking suitable course of action (Broad, 2014) The other theory of ethics is Deontological ethics. It places the emphasis on the morality and duty of human actions. In this theory, an action is taken as morally good due to some of the features of the action but not because of the action is good. For example- if a data is being stolen but the action of that stealing of data is good for the society then it is considered to be morally good. In this way, it holds that some of the acts are morally obligatory in spite of their consequences for human welfare.
Globalization is a situation in which the available cultural and social influences or the good and services become available all over the world. Among this, the agenda of social media is at top. Social media in one such technique that allows the user to connect with millions of users scattered around the world (Beck, 2018). Organizations also use various social media such as twitter, instagram and Facebook to inform about the events to public. There are various challenges related to the globalisation of social media. As per the study presented, it is founded that social media is for reaching the wider market base. However, it presents various challenges for the social media industry. The challenges related to the globalization of social media industry are to measure or track the success of this industry. In order to know the engagement of audience, it presents various challenges. Due to wider reach of social media, it started facing the problems related to identification of influencer in order to carry the brand massage. Due to the globalization, social media industry receives wider reach in the market. Data has started sharing among the wider population that has presented various challenges. Due to this, it becomes somewhat difficult to find out the person behind the stealing of any data or information of the organization (Goddard, 2017). Due to the wide publicity of information from the social media, any person can see the information and take the wrong use. It becomes difficult for companies to set the limits for sharing their data. There are times when wrong use of information is being taken and circulate by taking its worn use. This results in wrong image of company in front of public.
Theories of Ethics
Due to the globalization, various regulations come into force that will monitor the limit of using social media. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is one such example of the impact of globalization on social media (Datoo, 2018). This regulation was come in European law for protecting the data and privacy of all the individuals. As data breached was the common problem in the society and industries. Information’s get stolen or lost were into the hand of people who know how to hack the data. Therefore, GDPR ha come into force that will ensure the personal data of the company gathered legally. The person who has the responsibility of collecting and managing the data is obliged to protect it from exploitation or any misuse (Goddard, 2017).
Self-regulation sin the industry is made for the proper functioning of the social media in the industries as well as for assuring the practices ethically. Self-regulations are developed by industries themselves in order to corporate with the government for better functioning. For example- there are various regulations adopted by the industries that contain a set of rules and regulations apart from government rules and regulations. CSR is one such example of the self-regulation. Corporate social responsibilities in the each industry are used for ensuring the proper use of various things in the organization (Schwartz, 2017). It is essential element of every industry in order to use the data’s in an effective manner. However, various industries are not using the corporate social responsibility I their industry. They are not using as there are not strict rules made for using the CSR policy in business. Besides the CSR, there are various others industry guidelines, standards. Due to the non-compulsion of using it, firms are not paying heed towards it and it is creating many Problems such as breaching of data on social media, ineffective use of social media policies that is made for the right purpose. Various industries also have complaint handling schemes in their organization. This is also not adequate in various situations (Suliman, Al-Khatib and Thomas, 2016). Firms in today’s time also do not pay attention regarding the complaints of employees. Government also do not indulge too much in the self-regulation activities of industries. Due to this, sometimes breach if information come in front of public. In today’s time, there is need to pay more attention toward the social media activities that is taken up by the industries. It became essential for the industries to ensure that it is not a burden for them. It should also become a burden in terms of too much cost especially for the small business enterprises. It is also essential to decrease the anti-competitive prospective of industry schemes regarding the self-regulation. In this way, there is need for further regulations to set up which will do the strict monitoring of using the contents on social media.
Various limitations are related to the ethical issue concerned for the social media industry. Taking into the current case of Facebook scandal, that clearly states that there are still limitations in the regulation of social media industry. In the scandal of Facebook, the 1500 apps of third party get access the unposted Facebook pictures of approx. 6.8 million users. It states that there are no strict regulations for the use of social media (Alleman, 2018). If these regulations will not ensure the strict actions on part of any fraud or scandal activity, it will continue to happen. Besides this, there are various ethical issue happen which do not come in front of public due their non-accessibility. Millions of lives are facing issue due to the ease of corrupting the data from any other is account. People are also doing these unethical things continuously due to unavailability of any strict action towards it. If this will continue to persist, it will create the people for industries in future. Various useful information’s will leak by taking the data from the company’s account (Sowell, 2014). Therefore, it is now essential to take the strict actions against the people who are indulging in unethical practices related to the social media (Uwaya, 2018). There should be strict rules for taking the consent before taking any other is data. This will help in reducing the unethical practices. Besides this, there should also be regulations for disclosing the data. Government can also introduce the policy on social media industry. This will help in reducing the come largely. In this way, all these limitations can be come to an end by the proper framing of rules and regulations.
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that social media industry is facing various ethical issues related to the leaking of information. There various ethical issues that are associated with the social media industry. Due to no strict rules and regulation associated with social media, the scandals are increasing day by day. Facebook scandal is one of the biggest examples of misuse of social media strategy. In spite of various regulations made for the social media, each day new scandals come in front of the public due to the misuse of data from social media. It requires a serious action on the part of people and government. The strong rules and laws of the government can remove the ethical issue to some extent.
References
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