Why Facebook should hire a chief ethicist: Column

In response to the crisis of fake news items passed on through its platform, Facebook has announced it will ask users and partners (members of the Poynter Institute's International Fact Checking Network) to help police spurious postings.

It’s not enough. These steps simply shift the responsibility away from the company and onto others.

The parties most culpable for the spread of fake news are the social media companies themselves. I believe these companies must take responsibility for the dissemination of what is often clearly incorrect and misleading information.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all tech companies should hire a chief ethicist.

Chief ethicists could help executives think through difficult, critical decisions. They could help develop ethical guidelines for companies, even a code of ethics. And they could provide company-wide training on ethical decision-making.

Facebook’s trending section had been managed with help of human beings, but when accusations were made about possible political leanings of the unit in August, it was disbanded, the employees fired and replaced by an algorithm. Within a couple of days, some truly spurious material had hit the top of the trending list.

Computers and algorithms as we know them today cannot make sound ethical decisions. The uncomfortable truth for Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel or Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is that they need humans to be part of decision-making about the content they pass along. The bottom line: these companies bear some responsibility for the material they allow to be posted. Social media companies have an ethical responsibility to their users and to the larger public.

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A chief ethicist is not just needed by the tech companies that focus on social media, it also applies to Apple, Microsoft and Google. Each of these companies in its own right faces currently, has faced, and will continue to face crucial ethical decisions about the technology they profit from.

Google has been brought before leaders in Europe repeatedly to account for issues regarding the right to be forgotten — that is, the ability of individuals to wipe the digital slate clean so their lives are not continually ruined by one action in the past. After the San Bernardino murders in December 2015, Apple was scrutinized for refusing to open a secure iPhone. The debate over the company’s position not to cooperate was the focus of much public attention and included a somewhat weak defense from CEO Tim Cook. He tried to convince us the company’s decision wasn’t proprietary, but made to protect each of us and our privacy.

In all of these cases, I would argue the companies could have significantly benefited from the help of an ethicist. Often there is not an obvious answer in situations like these. In this complex world where technology and humans collide, there often are not clear rights and wrongs. Ethics is the process of weighing competing values and ideas. A chief ethicist at each of the tech firms would help guide these discussions and help executives think through the implications of these issues, and in some cases those discussions could take place before there is a crisis.

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Half a dozen years ago we formed the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy at Loyola University in Chicago to try to pull together people and research about ethics (and a lack thereof) in digital spaces. We wanted to publish essays on these topics and gather and encourage research. What we have learned is ethics is a process that can be embedded in any organization. I would argue it can best be championed by an ethics officer, trained in ethical decision making, but companies could also commit to ethics training for officers.

Of course, if companies employ ethicists, then they actually have to take their advice and also stick to any ethical decisions the company makes. Volkswagen famously has an entire section of its corporate website about its dedication to the environment and sustainability, while at the same time creating devices to defeat emissions tests. No use adding ethicists if their advice and counsel is ignored.

Other companies, though, have found value in adding ethics as a core corporate value, with the goals of being more transparent with their customers and even heading off potential lawsuits.

The large tech companies as they mature have reached a crucial moment where coming to terms with the consequences they create needs to be a high priority. Taking on ethical discussions at the top levels, with the help of someone trained in ethics, should be imperative. Otherwise, fake news is just the latest in what will continue to be a serious threat to these companies’ ability to function without much more extensive and rigorous government regulation.

Don Heider is dean of the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago and founder of the Center for Digital Ethics and Policy. Follow him on Twitter @donheider

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