Facebook’s Ethical Failures Assessment Answer

Introduction

Facebook has been a matter of legal action and criticism. The major criticisms consist of the influence Facebook has on the well-being and lives of users and personnel along with its impact on the manner media, particularly news is distributed and reported. Prominent issues consist of internet confidentiality like usage of extensive 'like' button on 3^rd party websites chasing users, probable unspecified archives of user information, involuntary facial recognition software and its function in the workshop, consisting of employer-employee revelation of account (Kee et al. 2022). The excessive use of Facebook can have adverse psychological impacts that include moods of stress, sexual jealousy, social media addiction and lack of consideration. Facebook intends to have a deep impact on people's access to information, thoughts and one another. It has unparalleled worldwide reach and in various markets caters as a de-facto monopolist (Asimovic et al. 2021). The impact it has on people and worldwide affairs is exclusive in human antiquity. This study aims at analyzing the features of the postmodern approach, detailing how customers are impacted by the business model of Facebook and its management approach, evaluating the importance of having moral obligation for companies and making substantial recommendations to Facebook and its management.

Characteristics of the Postmodern Approach to Analyzing Organizations

Postmodern theory informs the manner the companies are perceived by providing a critical approach to seeing companies. When one applies a postmodern methodology, it often deconstructs features via language analysis. Also, the postmodern approach intends to lay emphasis on knowledge and power. Therefore, rather than perceiving companies directly in regard to states' objectives, or as the public sees corporations, postmodernism might push people to observe companies more in terms of deceit, power relations, uncertainty and subjective understandings of words (Viotii and Kauppi 2019). The postmodernist theory also often lay emphasis on the perception of companies on context, instead of only on the companies themselves. The postmodernist theory takes into consideration the interests of organizational stakeholders as paramount, provided that they have power in the corporation and varying degrees of knowledge.

Postmodern administrations are considered as administrations that have been divided from the traditional standards of organizations as described by the modernist philosophy conquered by rationalism (Peltonen 2016). Also, they are featured by having progressed new and novel formats and practices as a response towards changing ecological conditions of postmodern culture. These organisations can be determined together by the level to which they are not epistemologically contemporary and by the grade to which they accept and make new and distinct outlines of regulation and operation. Nonetheless, the constant perseverance of modern methodologies of establishing is not to be disbelieved. Then, postmodern administrations might themselves be mixtures of postmodern and modern modes of forming and coincide in mixed populaces that consist of administrations that still run on largely modern lines (Gruszczak 2018). Moreover, just as there was a wide range of forms of originality, there are distinct replies to the issues of post-modernity that depict radicalism on both left and the right.

1. Globalization in postmodernism – Globalization is regarded as the interconnection of society because of the progress of telecommunication systems. It has carried people close together because of the declining status of geographical barricades and time zones. Globalization has altered the manner in which individuals network all across the globe, both in social and professional settings. Globalization has brought excessive advantages for organizations like charities, companies and governments. It has also impacted various processes like trade and aid, employment, stock market and supply chains, etc. Because of this globalizing system, we all are in the information society, but in a risky society. The ability of globalization to bring people close depicts several man-made risks, most specifically the raised danger of terrorism, surveillance, cybercrime and ecological damage (Makeri 2017).
2. Consumerism in postmodernism – It has been argued that nowadays society is a consumer society. They assert that one can frame our own life and individualities via similar procedures that are used when one goes out for shopping. It was not the culture in the period of modernity, as there were very less prospects to change the lifestyle in a similar manner (Venkateswaran et al. 2019).
3. Cultural multiplicity – As the outcome of fragmentation and globalization, postmodernity has led to raised cultural multiplicity. Various Western cultures are extremely culturally varied and are sentimental pots of distinct languages, backgrounds, food and melody. It is common to find famous overseas cultures as part of the philosophy of another nation. Through such multiplicity, persons can recognize and adapt factors of other principles into their own identities.
4. Hyperreality in postmodernism – The integration of reality and media is recognized as hyperreality. It is a major attribute of postmodernism as the difference between reality and media has distorted in current years as one spends more time online. Simulated reality is an adequate instance of how the virtual sphere fulfils the physical ecosphere (Wolny 2017). In numerous ways, the COVID-19 outbreak has further distorted this difference as billions across the ecosphere lifted their work and social existence online.
5. Another major attribute of postmodernity is the declining significance of metanarratives – wider issues and generalizations regarding how society functions. The instances of renowned metanarratives are Marxism, socialism, functionalism, and feminism. Postmodernist philosophers oppose that they are less perseverant in today's society as it is too complicated to be detailed completely with metanarratives that entitle to cover all objective truths (Inglehart 2020).

Postmodernism identifies the variability of present society and the varying relevance of power structure, media, globalization and other social variations. The positive side of the notion of postmodernity is that it identifies the varying nature of society and social procedures or structures and challenges people's expectations (Yousef 2017). However, it has been argued that people are in an era of 2nd modernity, not in postmodernity. It has been argued that modernism was the industrial community and that 2^nd modernity has substituted this with the information society.

In relation to the postmodernism of Facebook, it can be claimed that Facebook is a social interacting site that is castoff by a large number of people to communicate with each other. It enables people to create a page about themselves with groups, pictures, and interests on it. This allows one to change how people perceive different individuals and interact with individuals anywhere in the world. Moreover, Facebook is a simulation of conversation and a virtual world and thus, postmodern (Routray 2019). Also, it lay emphasis on style over actual substance. It is indicated with the use of enabling users to post pictures, as these photos could indicate the people looking as extremely stylish but there is the absence of actual substance to it. The advent of a status bar on Facebook indicates it is even highly postmodern (Pisarski 2017). It enables users to be self-reflexive by making entry what is ‘on their mind’. One can consider Facebook as postmodern as it makes use of bricolage. Instances of this include mixing it with famous cultures like films and music artists. These artists can now form groups for themselves and interact directly with their fans (Pohan and Lbs 2022). Facebook can be looked at as a model of social change as it has impacted the manner people communicate with each other. For instance, people that fall out now indicate it through the unfriend feature on Facebook.

Impact of Facebook's Business Model and its Management Approach on Customers

The data privacy issues of Facebook have been at the core of discussions in regard to unethical business practices. The corporation has recurrently shown careless procedures when it arrives to shielding its major asset, user data. While amassing prosperity through the propagation of its major social media website, the corporation has remained unsuccessful to respond and adequately apply its 3^rd party rules or notify users about political breaches of data (Chun 2019). One of the probable reasons for such carelessness on the part of Facebook is that the business model of the corporation rest on contributing social media platform that is unrestricted to use, which indicates that it is being paid for by the advertisers. As depicted by the 2020 controversy about face recognition and the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company has made it possible for third parties and make use of it for unethical purposes (Lauer 2021). Due to this, concerns arise regarding the corrupt business practices of Facebook and the responsibilities that the corporation has towards its users. It is vital to study the privacy issues of Facebook and its moral impacts on the social media sector and the users that engage with it. The Cambridge Analytica scandal is notable as it was greatly concerned with acquiring the private data of millions of Facebook operators without obtaining their permission and was used predominantly for political advertising (Hinds et al. 2020).

Talking about privacy on Facebook is a bit satirical. The complete business model of Facebook is grounded on the accumulation and sharing of user information. they fetch individuals a free social media stage to practice and in turn sell insights and advertising based on what they absorb regarding the user. Facebook tends to have massive abilities to gather, stockpile and examine data. It enables Facebook to sell very targeted marketing. Thus, confidentiality is Facebook's corporate model. The main issue that Facebook requires to address is the protection of data privacy. Facebook has not accepted its ethical responsibilities adequately and they have just responded once the issue has taken place (Pandey and Gudipudi 2019). Tackling such data privacy problems is complex for the corporation as those are aligned with ethical matters. in order to do so, they may require to uproot the complete business model which can further damage the bottom line of the organization. In the year 2018, with the prohibition of SCL and Cambridge Analytica from the channel, several changes were made to secure the data of users. API access abilities have been restricted, with no further searching for users with mobile numbers and email addresses (Bakir 2020). Over the periods, the issues of data privacy have emerged in a drastic way. In 2018, the security breach impacted over 50 million users as the outcome of the 'view as' feature that enabled people to look at what their profile looks like other individuals. Moreover, over 540 million Facebook-based records were recorded in AWS servers that were gathered by Cultura Colectiva via Facebook API. Various situations like these have occurred as the outcome of the company's business model, and the measures that they took for the purpose of privacy, have threatened the privacy of users.

Facebook presumed that it had the permission of all operators to share data regarding them that it gathered with the help of Beacon marketing services if they did not make use of the opt-out attribute (Noain-Sanchez 2016). The corporation utterly flopped to grip the degree to which the service dishonored the privacy of operators as well as the disturbed such a service was probable to cause. A similar thing happened when Facebook made the introduction of its News Feed option. Usually, it is the planned management of Facebook to get its operator to share as much information as probable so that Facebook can assist pertinent advertisements to operators. It is because the revenue of Facebook arises almost completely from advertising.

Importance of Having a Moral Obligation to Contribute to Society

Social responsibility is regarded as the duty of a business to undertake ethical verdicts that certainly influence society. Corporations require to deliberate how their activities adversely impact communities to fetch long-lasting believing relationship. In order to remain socially accountable, the company should severely follow their code of ethics. Business ethics are the acts of defining and leading the correct choices. Corporations progress a set of principles and rules that direct their actions and decisions, leading to positive impacts on customers and employees (Lobschat et al. 2021). Being a socially answerable corporation can strengthen the image of the company and shape its brand. Business ethics involve a guiding principle for behaviour, values and decision-making. Ethics for companies have changed over time but they are substantial for each corporation. Firms that execute social accountability initiatives can raise customer loyalty and retention. Companies having moral obligations towards society have the chance to stand out from the rivalry as they nurture superior and constructive recognition of the brand (Sroka and Szanto 2018). Users are more probable to constantly support firms that care more about the influence they make. Being constructive influences on societies and upholding ethical values enable companies to acquire new consumers and upkeep existing ones.

Core values reinforce the corporate mission and indicate in what way the corporation proposes to sustain its social values. Both management and business requirements follow such core values. The core standards that support social accountability and ethics may include kindness, integrity, community, knowledge, openness, humility, transparency, growth, etc. Society begins with the local public. The companies that concentrate on the area they function in can undertake a huge effect on their people. By encouraging social awareness on a smaller scale, the corporation can blowout its positive effect on local groups (Wang et al. 2016). This group is then inspired to advance that positive influence by assisting others, which can raise awareness about the brand of the company. Business ethics are the form of moral and professional ethics that the business organization should follow while carrying out business operations. The ethical path of doing business normally aids the company to undertake the right decisions at the right time without any panic wherein all the business stakeholders are being taken into significant consideration (Nayak and Chandiramani 2022). Business enterprises must involve engaging in any unethical practices that can damage the goodwill of the company and ruin the expectations of the stakeholders specifically shareholders and customers. Nevertheless, at the same time, forming and following the right ethical procedures is not a simple task. 100% commitment, dedication and determination are significant to implement and follow ethical norms in the company. Employee satisfaction and security, transparency with the government and shareholders, CSR and environmental protection are a few aspects that one business firm must take into account as business ethical practices.

The ethical concerns in relation to data secrecy on Facebook have indicated that the corporation has not been diligent adequately to protect the data of its operators. Both Facial Recognition Suit and Cambridge Analytica depict that the companies that have wide access towards user data are more prone to use it to obtain higher profits (Sivek 2018). Apart from this, as in the situation of an AI-related lawsuit, it was indicated that Facebook has dishonored the Illinois biometric privacy regulation which is a severe problem in the dominion of issues related to data privacy. Similar to the negligence exhibited by Facebook, Google also has violated the privacy of users by having the capability to share data via a wide array of services, including third parties like Google Analytics and Google AdSense. The capability of corporations to be negligent in managing user data is the outcome of obscure privacy policies to which users agree as well as the reliance on the advertisement to make a profit (Martin et al. 2017). The lack of guidelines in privacy regulation that could punish or prevent corporations from immoral data usage is stimulating and must be reexamined.

The constant corporate practice linked with Facebook being incapable to safeguard user data from confidentiality breaches is morally not acceptable. The corporation has never been clear regarding whether operator data is being safeguarded or how it might be used. Even though Facebook has been devoting itself to a longstanding privacy-focused idea, it does not indicate that the earlier malpractice must be forgotten. As per the model of CSR, the corporation has the moral obligation to remain ethical and do what is right and Facebook failed to meet such requirements (Hagendorff 2018). Providing another part with unobstructed access to operator data to progress mental profiles of possible voters does not alight with do what is correct theory of CSR. Apart from this, while agreeing to the privacy policy of Facebook, users presumed that any data provided to third parties could just be used for academic purposes and not impact public opinion in relation to elections.

Users, being the significant class of stakeholders for Facebook are interested in the simplicity of using the social media services of the firm and in the security and privacy of personal information. The corporation encounters criticism on the ethics of addressing such groups due to security and data privacy concerns like those engaging Cambridge Analytica. However, the corporate citizenship of Facebook continues to enhance its social networking website and mobile applications to make it simple for users to safeguard the privacy of their accounts (Diebert 2019). Further, the corporation is the basic participant in the launch of internet.org in 2013 which aims at making the platform of the company and other online resources highly accessible in the developing world. But it faces criticism in regard to net neutrality. Thus, it can be claimed that Facebook does not satisfy the major interests of users and further improvement is required.

Recommendations

Due to the history of unethical business practices of Facebook in connection to user privacy issues, it is vital to discuss the probable reason for the negligence of the corporation. The major issue concerned with the inability of Facebook to protect user data is associated with the fact that the business model of the corporation relies on advertisements (Balkin 2018). Due to this, the company has to do a lot of data study to identify pertinent trends and make pertinent forecasts regarding products that operators may find intriguing. The corporation’s management should work with outside evaluators and confidentiality law specialists to facilitate the overhaul of its data use and privacy strategies to which its client may agree. It must also concern other corporations like Twitter and Google that have also been caught overusing the data of clients and making use of AI without any consent from customers. Therefore, it is crucial that the companies work on emerging a transparency policy that interconnects to the users how their information might be castoff and for what motive.

On the basis of the CSR challenges, it is highly recommended that Facebook Inc. must improve its corporate citizenship initiatives to satisfy the concerns of the communities, specifically through ecological and sustainable community development agendas, which are two of the company's corporate social responsibilities (Banks et al. 2016). Moreover, it is suggested that the corporation develop more stringent security and data privacy policies for strict compliance. This suggestion addresses the interest of users and communities while making a substantial contribution to the business's competitive benefit to counteract the moderate competitive forces.

The government uses Facebook as a room to keep the overall public well-versed and updated regarding substantial issues with the audience on a profounder level. Collaborating and involvement with citizens will assist in establishing and building trustworthiness and faith. Social media intends to be a place where captions are made, storms thrashed out and thoughts shared. However, this may have an undesirable influence on delicate or sensitive political conditions. The social media breach can severely undermine the confidence of the overall public in the government. The simplest path to make sure that the account stays protected is by onboarding the social media management stage to manage the social media accounts and activities wide across multiple players or people. Remaining compliant with the privacy requirement is substantial for any user of Facebook. Government can pass guidelines for Facebook towards unacceptable and prohibited content, citizen engagement, data management and even tone. It must frame a policy that ensures Facebook’s compliance with the users’ interests (Gillespie 2018).

The Facebook login feature is a simple way to log in to other websites and applications. But as indicated above, Facebook gets to gather more personal data in exchange. It may also provide the corporation that offers those outside services admittances to account information including name, email address, photo and other data visible to the public by default. Delete the access for all those applications that are no longer in use (Madani et al. 2017). For those applications, that users retain, restrict the sharing permission to only me and get rid of all the non-substantial access to the profile details.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that Facebook is considered as post-modern as it has made social changes in the manner events are planned. The usage of viral marketing has made it so the internet now acts as the major part of the distribution. Also, on Facebook, corporations select to place advertisements that will be particularly for the target audience. The continuous corporate practice linked with Facebook being not able to protect operator data from confidentiality breaches is ethically not acceptable. Facebook's social media business adversely impacts stakeholders across the world. This condition requires global standards for the corporate social responsibility initiatives of the corporation to satisfy the interests of the stakeholders. For instance, the corporation should maintain privacy policies that satisfy several standards and the expectations of the government, users and communities.

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