Internet Ethics

Since anonymous agents can spread misinformation with impunity, many people advocate for greater accountability for internet speech. This paper provides a veritistic argument that accountability mechanisms can cause significant epistemic problems for internet encyclopedias and social media communities. I show that accountability mechanisms can undermine both the dissemination of true beliefs and the detection of error. Drawing on social psychology and behavioral economics, I suggest alternative mechanisms for increasing the trustworthiness of internet communication.

One of the characteristics that distinguish human being from other creations is the ability to differ well from bad. Human being does everything that he/she characterizes as a good in a way of being a moral individual. The philosophy of morality displays common ideas about the aim of human actions and the end of life. Ethics is a discipline of philosophy of morality that explores what is good and true, what is bad and false; what should be the aim of human life; what factors should include morale and virtuous life. Because of impossibility of digesting rapid technological changes with the same speed, the decrease of ethical principles that bring human values to the first plan and failure of legal structuring creates some negative outcomes. Violation of confidentiality of private life, violation of intellectual property rights, information crimes, employment within the frame of life quality and dependency are the examples of these negative outcomes. Ethical problems on internet is increasing day by day. Rules of net ethics must be developed in a way to solve these problems. Privacy is one of the ethical problems of internet. It is concerned with three spheres: government, marketing people and employees. Spam mails and antispam laws that are developed against them are also concerned with net ethics. Except for them domain problems, copyright problems, problem of internet dependency, problems of cyber crimes (information hypes, logic bombs, hacking and cracking actions, viruses…) are continuing. Net ethics i.e. netiquette, forms the basics of rules that should be followed by net community. Nowadays all net citizens (netizens) are expected to follow these rules. ÖZET İnsanları diğer canlılardan ayıran özelliklerden biri, iyiyi kötüden ayırma yeteneğidir. İnsanoğlu iyi şeklinde nitelendirdiği hemen her şeyi ahlâklı bir birey olma yolunda uygular. Ahlâk felsefesi, insan hareketlerinin amacı ve hayatın akıbeti hakkında genel görüşler ortaya koyar. Neyin iyi ve doğru, neyin kötü ve yanlış olduğunu; insan yaşamının amacının ne olması gerektiğini; ahlaklı ve erdemli bir yaşamın hangi öğeleri içermesi gerektiğini araştıran ahlak felsefesi disiplini etiktir. Hızlı toplumsal dönüşümlerin aynı hızla sindirilmesi mümkün olamadığı için bir anlamda insani değerlerin ön plana çıkarılması demek olan etik ilkelerin gelişmemesi ve hukuki yapılanmanın gerçekleştirilememesi bazı olumsuz etkiler yaratabilmektedir. Özel hayatın gizliliğinin ihlali, entelektüel mülkiyet haklarının ihlal edilmesi, bilişim suçları, yaşam kalitesi kapsamında istihdam ve bağımlılık bu olumsuz etkilere verilebilecek örneklerdir. İnternetteki etik sorunlar her geçen gün artmaktadır. Net etiği kuralları da, artan bu sorunları çözebilecek şekilde geliştirilmelidir. İnternetin etik sorunlarından biri mahremiyet sorunudur. Hükümet, pazarlamacılar ve işverenler olmak üzere üç alanı ilgilendirmektedir. Spam mailler ve buna karşı geliştirilen antispam yasaları da net etiğiyle ilgilidir. Bunun dışında; alan isimleri sorunu, telif hakları sorunu, internet bağımlılığı sorunu, siber suçlara ait sorunlar (bilgi aldatmacası, mantık bombaları, hacking ve cracking eylemleri, virüsler...) artarak devam etmektedir. Net etiği diğer bir deyişle netiquette, net toplumunda uyulması gereken kuralların temelini oluşturmaktadır. Günümüzde tüm net vatandaşlarının (netizenlerin) bu kurallara uyması beklenmektedir.

The Internet of Things is almost a new paradigm that is revolutionizing our society and our life. It is intended that all objects around us are connected to the network, providing worldwide access to information. This concept is gaining space, thanks to the large number of devices connected to the web, ranging from mobile devices to appliances. In the same time, the development of Internet of Things (IoT) give rise to a number of security-related and ethical issues which gain a new dimension in the light of the increased complexity of these technologies. The biggest problem is that IoT does not concern objects only; it is about the relations between the everyday objects surrounding humans and humans themselves. It`s important to emphasize that the majority of connected objects are not always personal and are unattended. Their physical security is not guaranteed (especially for the public networks) and the control of the objects may be lost sometimes. This paper addresses the most important concerns regarding the security issues in Internet of Things. Main enabling factor of this promising paradigm is the integration of several technologies and communications solutions with security and privacy techniques.

What ethical issues arise with the use of human-sounding artificial intelligence in interactions? A case study exploring the ethical promises and challenges of AI. Authored by Sabrina Stoffels & Scott R. Stroud. More case studies at www.mediaethicsinitiative.org

Excerpt from Scott R. Stroud & Jonathan Henson, “Social Media, Online Sharing, and the Ethical Complexity of Consent in Revenge Porn,” Online Consumer Behavior: The Dark Side of Social Media, Angeline Close Scheinbaum (ed.), Routledge, forthcoming.

The use of the Internet by people who use drugs presents an opportunity for researchers not only to successfully recruit drug users to participate in research, but to go further and engage drug users more fully in dialogue. In this paper, we present data arising from a doctoral research project which examines drug use in an Internet society by focusing on the experiences of participants in online dance music and drug discussion forums, and we examine the ethical issues and problems that arose in this context due to the illegal ...

Since anonymous agents can spread misinformation with impunity, many people advocate for greater accountability for internet speech.  This paper provides a veritistic argument that accountability mechanisms can cause significant epistemic problems for internet encyclopedias and social media communities.  I show that accountability mechanisms can undermine both the dissemination of true beliefs and the detection of error.  Drawing on social psychology and behavioral economics, I suggest alternative mechanisms for increasing the trustworthiness of internet communication.

WHEN WE SPEAK OF THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN WORLD WE SPEAK OF CONQUERORS, OF VICTORIES AND DEFEATS, AND IMPLICITLY OF SOLDIERS. SINCE THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME THE SOLDIER APPEARS AS A POWERFUL “ENTITY” THAT FOUGHT TO ENSURE THE ETERNITY OF THE STATE, EMBRACING A GLORIOUS DEATH. WHAT MADE THE ROMAN SOLDIER READY TO GIVE HIS LIFE FOR THE WELFARE OF THE STATE? THIS STUDY OFFERS POSSIBLE ANSWERS TO THIS MYSTERY BY ANALYZING SOME OF THE LITERARY SOURCES OF THE PERIOD. I WILL UNDERLINE HOW THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGES THAT TRANSFORMED THE REPUBLIC INTO THE ROMAN EMPIRE ALSO CHANGED THE SOLDIER‟S ATTITUDE AND HIS “PATRIOTISM” TOWARDS THE ROMAN STATE.

"This paper is an attempt to establish a foundation for technoethics of IT that makes an account of the virtual environment based within the lived situation of those who work and dwell in that emerging realm. The most important phenomenon for technoethics of IT is the relationship between knowledge about information and the capacity to turn information into knowledge. This relationship is embodied in being a Master of Information Technology. To achieve mastery of information and mould it into knowledge, a useful tool-like entity, is to have power in the contemporary world. Once this situation is recognised ethical questions arise of their own volition. A selection of these questions are dealt with in the following paper, they are the questions of the distinction between information and knowledge, the central issue of virtue and virtuality, and the distinction between stealing and sharing in the virtual environment. This paper constitutes a think piece; readers who have a stake in the virtual environment and its ethical makeup are urged to ask themselves these questions and come up with others in turn. "