New Moralities for New Media? Assessing the Role of Social Media in Acts of Terror and Providing Points of Deliberation
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ORIGINAL PAPER
New Moralities for New Media? Assessing the Role of Social Media in Acts of Terror and Providing Points of Deliberation for Business Ethics Ateeq Abdul Rauf1 Received: 16 September 2019 / Accepted: 26 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract New media and technologies such as social media and online platforms are disrupting the way businesses are run and how society functions. This article advises that scholars consider the morality of new media as an area of investigation. While prior literature has given much attention to how social media provides benefits, how it affects society generally, and how it can be used efficiently, research on the ethical aspects of new media has received relatively less attention. In an age where matters such as violence, hate crimes, fake news, etc. are increasingly pervasive, we need to address the role of online technology in aiding or limiting such negative acts. In this regard, this article uses the canvas of a terror attack that was facilitated by online technology to bring to light pressing social and ethical issues in the use of new media. I draw upon 264 news articles focusing on the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attacks to piece together how the attack was orchestrated and focus on technology-enabled facets of the event. I stir discussion on the ethical aspects of technology with regard to online discrimination (known as online othering) and highlight business and other stakeholder responsibilities and challenges as technology continues to evolve and pervade our social lives. Keywords Social media · Technology · Terrorism · Online othering · Racism · Islam · Christchurch Mr Speaker, we will also look at the role social media played [in the terrorist attacks] and what steps we can take, including on the international stage, and in unison with our partners. There is no question that ideas and language of division and hate have existed for decades, but their form of distribution, the tools of organization, they are new. We cannot simply sit back and accept that these platforms just exist and that what is said on them is not the responsibility of the place where they are published. They are the publisher. Not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit no responsibility. This of course doesn’t take away the responsibility we too must show as a nation, to confront racism, violence and extremism. I don’t have all of the answers now, but we must collectively find them. And we must act.1
* Ateeq Abdul Rauf [email protected] 1
Information Technology University, Lahore, Pakistan
- Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern (in the address to her Parliament on March 19, 2019 in the wake of Christchurch mosque attacks) This article shares one of goals that the New Zealand Prime Minister set out in the above excerpt, i.e., to examine the role of social media in violent acts such as terrorism and to understand what businesses could do to minimize the possibility of such incidents. In this paper, I specifically ask how do newer forms of media
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