Ethics

Facebook conducted a study, which manipulated users’ emotional state. More negative News Feeds led to more negative status messages, as more positive News Feeds led to positive statuses. Not to mention their mal use of the tools, it seriously challenges ethical issues. Even though some might refer this study as original, ethically, it’s an open question. Morality comes before any legality. We make regulations/laws out of ethical reasons. Somewhat contrary to their findings, there have been studies indicating the more users see other people being happy, the more they feel depressed and less happy.

 

The Facebook has always been manipulating users’ News Feeds. It uses an algorithm to determine what to display and hide, and it rarely discloses any detailed information about how the algorithm works. This is why I don’t use Facebook.
Tandoc and Thomas’ article on “The ethics of web analytics” was a good transition after reading articles about how deceptive the Facebook is. However, whether the Facebook can be considered as journalism still remains.