CS 2/2023 - Internet Research Ethics in the Platform Society. Theoretical Reflections, Research Experiences, and Open Questions (original) (raw)
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Comunicazioni Sociali. Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies, 2023
Since the late 1990s, Internet Research Ethics (IRE) has emerged as a burgeoning field, fueled by an evergrowing variety of ethical challenges and concerns (Zimmer and Buchanan, 2016). To name but a few, questions include how to minimize risks for researchers and research subjects, and issues surrounding informed consent and intersecting interests between corporations and academic approaches: both emphasize the importance of the integrity of researcher but also add challenges to Ethics Committees, who aim to confirm what research can or cannot be conducted (franzke et al., 2020). In recent years, the societal and technological landscape has changed and expanded still again: platforms such as social media and apps aggregate a significant number of users, generating new social, cultural, and media practices to study. Research into these realms is stimulating and challenging but further implies methodological and ethical issues surrounding both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Both ethnographies and big data approaches in particular have different but compelling ethical issues to consider (Zimmer, Kinder-Kurlanda, 2017; Zook et al, 2017). Actually, there is the need to study and comprehend users' behaviors and their socio-cultural implications but users need to be more aware of what may happen to the data they posted and also about the research they are involved into. Moreover, the complex nature of AI technology and platform logics has evoked thunderous academic debates surrounding buzzwords such as fake news, and the importance of taking up misinformation, hate speech and ethical reflection in social media research is more compelling than ever before. In addition to these changes, the role and importance of internet research ethics has grown for over a decade and the approach of having it incorporated by design into the research projects is increasingly more common (Ibiricu, Van Der Made, 2020). For example, when participating in public grants and fundings such as Horizon Europe, the evaluation of the ethics of research is an aspect required from the very beginning also for social sciences and humanities. This entails a specific attention to privacy and developing a new attitude and best practices also for these disciplines, with consequences for how research projects are developed and carried out, including ethics assessments from its very beginning through its dissemination. Among the new challenges there is also the need of making research data open, requiring a further level of reflection. Considering this landscape, the present issue of Comunicazioni Sociali. Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies focuses on the new challenges of the ethics of social media and internet research through eliciting papers addressing theoretical reflections and research projects across the world especially related to social sciences, media studies, performing arts, and cultural studies. This topic is consistent with the tradition of the journal and its attention to the research on media and its context.
Platform Ethics in Technology: What Happens to the User?
DRS2018: Catalyst, 2018
In recent times, the design of technology platforms has been largely driven by the optimization of data flows in large-scale urban initiatives. Even though many platforms have good intentions, rising expectations for data efficiency and reliability, the configuration of users and user's interactions inevitably have ethical consequences. It has become increasingly difficult to foresee how a wide diversity of users fares against a spatially complex and materially incomplete management and distribution of data flows. Through the logic of platformization, we explore how this plays out in the context of open mapping platforms-in the case of an individual elderly street-mapper, Stig. Drawing from design anthropology, we present an anecdotal account of Stig's experiences of street mapping, showcasing his attempts to adapt to the demands of the mapping platform sometimes at the expense of his own wellbeing. Opening up to the complexity of the situation, we discuss the ethical dissonances of platforms, hence questioning the role of design in such complex modes of data production and consumption.
Platform values: an introduction to the #AoIR16 special issue
Marking a decade of exciting interdisciplinary internet research, this is the 10th Information, Communication and Society special issue that features research generated by the annual Association of Internet Research (AoIR) conferences. This issue consists of eight provocative articles selected from #AoIR2016, the 17th annual conference, held at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany from 5–8 October 2016. The #AoIR2016 conference theme Internet Rules! invited participants to address the complex interplay of digital technologies, business models and user practices. For some, the Internet rules! Others are ruled by the internet. Reflecting the emergent focus during the conference, this special issue addresses the Internet as a set of connected platforms that have various technical, social, cultural, political and figurative meanings, and seeks to understand rules as a set of normative values. Offering a primer on platform values, the contributions share a commitment to social justice, offer innovative theoretical interventions and empirically ground the workings of platform values from various scholarly perspectives. They show how normative digitally networked technologies are mutually shaped by top-down decisions such as the profit-oriented workings of algorithms that differentially value some users over others and bottom-up user practices that both sustain and subvert value-laden mechanisms.
2015
Abstract. Some kinds of technological change not only trigger new ethical problems, but also give rise to questions about those very approaches to addressing ethical problems that have been relied upon in the past. Writing in the aftermath of World War II, Hans Jonas called for a new “ethics of responsibility, ” based on the reasoning that modern technology dramatically divorces our moral condition from the assumptions under which standard ethical theories were first conceived. Can a similar claim be made about the technologies of cyberspace? Do online information technologies so alter our moral condition that standard ethical theories become ineffective in helping us address the moral problems they create? I approach this question from two angles. First, I look at the impact of online information technologies on our powers of causal efficacy. I then go on to consider their impact on self-identity. We have good reasons, I suggest, to be skeptical of any claim that there is a need fo...
Platform Studies: The Rules of Engagement
2016
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are central to people’s experiences of the internet and mobile media, and increasingly extend far beyond communication or entertainment, into transport, health, and finance. These platforms also serve up and serve as data for internet scholars and practitioners. How should we best approach platforms as objects of study? How do platforms’ rules and norms for engagement shape the practices we study? How do the material rules of these systems – their algorithms, their APIs, the analytics they provide – shape what we can know about them? While the importance of and methods for studying platforms have long been debated in game studies (Bogost & Montfort, 2009; Apperley & Parikka, 2015), this panel represents a second wave of platform studies, one that focuses on thinking critically about the best ways to understand the roles platforms play in mediating our media, communication and cultural environments; and one that integrates mat...
Comment on Elena Pavan/1. Considering Platforms as Actors
Sociologica, 2013
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2012_Ethics of Information and Communication Technologies_EGE_Opinion 26
Every day more than 250 million Europeans connect to the Internet, to work, learn, communicate, play and socialise. But the digital economy, which has grown rapidly around all those activities, poses new challenges to governments and regulators. Business models are likely to change significantly as Internet access allows consumers to compare goods and prices and to shop across borders. Work and play will also change dramatically, as personal interactions continue to change from word of mouth and personal meetings to include interactions unlimited by place or time. Communication and mechanisms for interacting with others have already changed beyond recognition, and this will almost certainly continue at an accelerating pace. The digital revolution has and will impact on everything people do, from their life choices to their health, their shopping, their education and the way they communicate. Most importantly, national and regional boundaries are becoming, and will continue to become, blurred as a result of the speed and accessibility of new technologies. According to the Digital Agenda, 39 fragmented markets currently hinder European digital commerce. The lack of interoperability between national systems also acts as a brake on the development of commerce. Rising levels of crime create significant problems in providing European citizens with a reliable and safe digital environment that engenders trust. Ideas for mechanisms to improve the use of technology across the European Union are addressed. The Agenda also recognises that ‘[T]oday, under EU law, citizens in the EU enjoy a series of rights that are relevant to the digital environment, such as freedom of expression and information, protection of personal data and privacy, requirements for transparency and universal telephone and functional Internet services and a minimum quality of service’. In addition to the impact on commerce, there is a very considerable impact on the manner in which we live our lives. Technology is likely to impinge on us in both positive and negative ways. The Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) emphasises that this should be built into the various technologies as they become available. The impact of the new technologies is so far‑reaching that it is impossible to address the vast range of issues that are encompassed within the scope of information and communication technologies. In accepting the request the EGE decided to focus on Internet technologies. As the EGE will be examining security issues arising from ICT in a subsequent opinion, it will not address them in this document. There will be similarities in the ethical issues arising from the use of ICT in health, government, education, agriculture and commerce as they impact on society and individuals. The EGE will therefore deal with the ethical problems in general, using examples to highlight issues within particular domains. ICT in the home and in the interaction of individuals is as important as the Internet, and the implications are just as far‑ reaching. This Opinion should provide suggestions for an ethically sound use of ICT. The EGE has decided not to address issues related to IPR and ICT even though it is aware of the controversy related to the ongoing and future negotiations of the Anti‑Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. On 21 March 2011 President José Manuel Barroso asked the EGE to draft an Opinion on the ethical issues arising from the rapid expansion of information and communication technologies (ICT). President Barroso indicated that the Opinion could ‘offer a reference point to the Commission to promote a responsible use of the Digital Agenda for Europe and facilitate the societal acceptance of such an important policy item. The EGE is aware of the changes that have come about in the lives of most citizens of the European Union, and further afield, as a result of the pervasiveness of new electronic media. The challenge is to ensure that the availability of electronic information and the use of ICT are handled in an ethical manner.
Digital Platforms and Their Normative Role: Looking Through the Lens of European Fundamental Values
Pravo ì suspìlʹstvo, 2022
The article is devoted to digital platforms and their impact on individuals and societies, including the legal systems and values on which the European legal order is based. The article provides a brief overview of the understanding of the term "digital platforms" and how it relates to "online platforms", but for the purposes of this research, this understanding is narrowed to these two types of platforms: (1) those intended for the exchange of information, goods or services between producers and consumers, mainly by providing services, and (2) so-called "social media", that is, those previously seen as communities and places for the exchange of opinions. The article questions whether the nature and activities of modern digital platforms are compatible with the requirements of European fundamental values, in particular human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Special attention in the research is paid to the normative role of digital platforms, which includes both the directly regulatory role and the broader role of forming and maintaining certain social norms. This role manifests itself in aspects such as regulatory intervention, changing the social landscape, and replacing public institutions in their key activities and perceptions by individuals. In more detail, the serious influence of digital platforms is expressed in the promotion of specific regulatory norms, regimes for the protection of human rights and the interpretation of the essence of particular fundamental rights, the regulation of social relations through design, the spread of certain types of contractual relations, the replacement of the justice system with restrictive dispute resolution procedures offered by the platforms. Digital platforms form the habit and tolerance of certain business models, which include the formation of dependence of people and governments on the decisions and actions of the platforms, the absence of alternatives and a monopoly position not only on the market but in broader context. By gaining public trust, platforms supplant traditional public institutions and increase platforms' influence on public opinion and democratic processes. At the same time, platforms and their owners mostly avoid both legal and moral responsibility for the consequences of their activities for human rights, the rule of law and democracy.
Internet Research Ethics: New Contexts, New Challenges – New (Re)Solutions?
2015
Especially the second set of AoIR guidelines for research ethics (Markham and Buchanan 2012) demonstrate that progress can be made in laying out useful approaches for analyzing and resolving at least very many of emerging ethical challenges facing Internet researchers. But of course, new research possibilities, contexts, and approaches continue to issue in sometimes strikingly novel ethical difficulties that may challenge in turn more established frameworks and guidelines. Critical to the ongoing development of Internet Research Ethics (IRE), then, is to bring forward new cases and difficulties that, as in previous cycles of guideline development, will serve as fruitful foci for reflection and deliberation that then contribute to both improving our abilities to respond to such new challenges and, eventually, the articulation of subsequent guidelines. Hence, our roundtable showcases important examples of contemporary research ethics issues – most especially as these are evoked by new...