Moral Obligations of Social Media Companies

The past year of “apology tours” from executives at Facebook and Google have raised a long-standing concern about the moral obligations of social media companies — that is, to considerably weigh the rights and needs of communities using the platforms against the bottom line of revenue for social platforms.

When companies create a digital space for people to share ideas, consume news and connect with brands, what responsibility do they hold over the nature of these profitable interactions?

First we must consider the most fundamental part of the mutually-beneficial relationship between social media companies and their users: creating a social media account is free. In return, we forfeit our data, our behavior and our attention. Seems like a fair price, until people realize how much their personal information is worth.

The greatest moral concern I have with social media companies is the degree to which they let advertisers target users who are particularly vulnerable to messaging about negative body image, mental and emotional health, political information and financial stability. Social media companies should have a moral obligation to selling ads that uphold public interest.

Americans have a pretty low level of media and news literacy according to the Education Writers Association. When they’re using social media, they’re already looking at a host of content that reinforces harmful messaging about success and status. It’s prime time for an advertiser to promote products that could help them achieve the same status of content they’re engaging with. At the same time, users are most vulnerable to misinformation, including ads for products, platforms and politics that aren’t based in truth and transparency.

Despite capitalist intuitions, American legal and commercial regulations don’t uphold the concept of ‘buyer beware.’ While it would be great for consumers to all enjoy the same level of media and financial literacy, the reality is that people with lower income and educational attainment are at greater risk for being targeted by false and unfair advertising.

Social companies sell ads to millions of different companies every day, and can’t reasonably be tasked with vetting the individual morality of each advertiser’s mission. However, Facebook has publicly admitted it has room to improve, and is working on algorithms and programs to detect malicious advertising.

Will ad buyers focus on quality content over quantity of leads? With enough social pushback from accounts like Sleeping Giants, some experts think yes. However, realists like Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times understand it will be extremely long-winded and complicated, as he explained in his column from 2017:

“That isn’t a plea for charity. It’s a plea for common sense. If current trends continue, there will be far less quality content to fill the big platforms advertisers are so in love with. They should think about what will be left.”