“Further well trodden themes in social networking research – such as identity, use/non-use, motives for use, privacy, surveillance, friending, commodification, and user exploitation – all surface issues with ethical dimensions”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

I was tasked with looking at the ethical issues that may arise in developing miXXerS. Ethical issues that arise with interactions between users, online and offline communities, social network developers, corporations, governments and other institutions are complex. Social networks have changed how we create and/or maintain social relationships/roles and there are ethical implications of this.  Each stakeholder can have diverse and also conflicting motives and interests and the same will be the case for the mixed audience of miXXerS. Social relations between people who have/desire some type of relationship or affiliation personal, business or otherwise are at the core of social networks. For miXXerS this is no exception.

Moreover, in building technological systems computer scientists often tend to build what they think would work best for the user without necessarily considering ‘disclosive computer ethics’. Instead of viewing the technology as a neutral actor this instead focuses on the moral norms and values embedded in information technologies, applications and practices. We therefore would like to build a system which considers the ethical implication of the technology itself as well as the ethical use of the site.

“the emphasis in technology design should be on achieving the greatest good for the greatest number, and developers of social networking sites are seen to have ethical responsibilities for ensuring that their designs are oriented towards achieving the desired goal. The developers, on the other hand, appear to hold a user-oriented view – they make social networking sites for people to play with.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Social networking sites can facilitate deception, social grooming and defamation. Given miXXerS is a site which combines not only music but also parties we must be aware of this. Users will be able to report unethical use of the site per our policies and we will design features which will help to support ethics. This is important. One report found that “active social networkers show a higher tolerance for activities that could be considered unethical.” and that “It appears that they are more willing to consider things that are ‘gray areas’. However, there are skeptics of such arguments. In addition, given the data that is derived from free use of the site is important for our business this also raises ethical questions which all social network sites struggle with as it has become a defacto business model for the web.