The Digitization of Business in China by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319790480
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.4 Social Media and Ethical Issues

Social media exhibits unique characteristics when compared to traditional media forms. Its speed and scope mean that once the content is published it is available instantaneously, to a potentially global audience. Social media tools tend to be free or available at a very low cost relative to other forms of media and do not require users to have much technical knowledge. This allows larger numbers of individuals to access and publish material than with traditional media forms. Social media can be useful, and it shows promise for development in promoting businesses and knowledge sharing. However, it does have a darker side (Alexander 2013, 2014; Chung 2011). Social media is usually interactive in a way that traditional media is not, so users can comment on and edit published materials, making it difficult to control content. Social media blurs private and public boundaries when personal information and opinions enter the public domain. The boundaries between personal and work life also become blurred as companies make use of social media (originally designed for personal use) for business purposes, and likewise employees access personal sites while at work. A 2011 DLA Piper survey found social media is used for personal and work-related activities by 95 percent of employees. These unique characteristics of social media pose ethical challenges for businesses, through employees’ use of social media on behalf of the company, as well as their personal use.

Social media providers expect users of their services to adhere to some basic standards of ethical behaviour, but the mechanisms of enforcing compliance remain weak. For example, Facebook has statements of rights and responsibilities and a user privacy policy that governs their relationship and provides interaction guidelines with other users who interact with their social media platform. The policy also demonstrates how Facebook collects and uses clients’ content. The content owner is required to grant Facebook exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use their content. However, this intellectual privacy licence, in theory, ends when a client deletes the content or the account, unless the content has been shared with others and they have not deleted it. With WeChat, users do have the same amount of control over their privacy settings, which can help them choose who they want to engage with. By using WeChat, users agree that the company may collect, use and share their information in accordance with its privacy policy; however, these terms are ambiguous and are revised from time to time.

Social media is not always positive and has often displayed its negative face. Lundsay (2010) argues that social media is a challenging matter because it crosses over so many ethical and compliance issues, but unlike any other ethics and compliance issue it cannot be totally proactively managed. UNESCO (2008) stated that promoting ethical aspects and principles that espouse creative multilingual content and universal access to information and communication should be encouraged among users and service providers. The policies to enhance ethical values in social media environments should be able to provide a commitment to the free flow of information.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.