Do social media companies have an ethical obligation to remove or block the sharing of some kinds of otherwise-legal online content—and if so, what kinds of content should they try to eliminate from the platforms, and how?
You might choose to write about social media companies generally, or you could change the question slightly so that it’s about a specific company like Twitter or Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram). So for instance, you could rewrite the question to say: “Does Twitter have an ethical obligation…”
For instance, should they remove or block sexual content? Harassment and bullying? Racism, sexism, and the like? Medical and/or political misinformation? And so on—you are not limited to these categories.)
Base your argument about their ethical obligation—or lack of an obligation—on one or more of the ethical theories discussed in Treviño and Nelson, Chapter 2, and/or Weiss, Chapter 2. As in the ethical theory paper, explicitly explain the theory/theories you use in your own words.
Do not focus on legal issues, nor business strategy (e.g., relationships with advertisers), unless you explain how that helps support your argument about ethics.
In discussing how to remove or block content, be sure to base your arguments on realistic strategies using evidence that supports this as a possibility—or, if you are arguing that they don’t have an obligation because they can’t do so realistically, to base that claim on evidence supporting your view.
