Critique of the article ‘End of Social Media Immunity’

The objective of this article is to inform the society on the importance of having restrictions when it comes to social media in order to create a socially ethical society. The article begins by explaining the extent to which the use of social media has become widely spread and how this usage has been beneficial to the world. The article also mentions that social media has also negatively impacted the society whereby it encourages unethical behaviours like matter relating sex trafficking among others and that is why there needs to be restrictions in regard to the things that can be shared on these platforms.

The article uses secondary method of research whereby it uses data that has also ready been researched and published to help support its views. One law that is particularly cited is the section 230 of ‘The Communication Decency Act’ that is quoted to be the main cause of the increased cases of online sex trafficking. The article effectively argue that with this act, the providers did not bother to limit the kind of things that their users post on their platforms and this is what has led to increased unethical activities on the internet. The law that can help fight the issue of sex trafficking in online platforms as pointed out in the article is FOSTA (Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) of 2017. This act issues that the social sites that promote or facilitate prostitution or any form of sex trafficking will be liable and subjected to a fine or incarceration of up to ten years. The article concludes with the illustration that though FOSTA may take time to be accepted, it has so far been successful in reducing unethical activities that promote sex trafficking online and the article justifies this by giving examples of sites such as Reddit and Craigslist that have so far banned several of its communities.

This article has major implications for the business world as it helps to show the broad manner in which the business world has been affected by social media. Some of the benefits that have been mentioned include the ease of communication and also the diversity of businesses where social media has created room for businesses to reach people from all over the world. The issue of sex trafficking greatly affects business ethics and there is hence the need to be a change in the acts that are already in place such that they ensure that matters to do with sex trafficking and other unethical matters that transpire in these social media sites are limited.

I find this article very education, many times we see unethical things posted on the internet and we assume that it is okay and it is not and this needs to change through creation of laws that ensure that unethical activities are not happening in these platforms. The article is effective in the presentation of its arguments and this it does by citing the available laws and the way that these laws have been changing over the years up to date. One weakness with this article is the fact that it only uses data from one region which is the United States. This limits the findings and arguments of the article from being accepted in other parts of the world which means that the important facts being communicated will not reach every individual.

The social media have become widely accepted in the society, with people having more than one social media profile. This article helps to illustrate that with increased use of social media there has been adoption of unethical activities such as sex trafficking. There is hence the need for strict laws like FOSTA that force the social media sites owners to be responsible of the content that is posted in their platforms. This article will be beneficial to business owners who choose to use the social media platform for their business activities because they will understand some of the rules that they are expected to follow in the course of their online business activities.

 

 

References

Pike, G. H. (2018, May). The End of Social Media Immunity? Retrieved from

            http://www.infotoday.com/it/may18/Pike--The-End-of-Social-Media-Immunity.shtml