In the article “We shouldn't expect Facebook to behave ethically” by John Naughton in the Guardian Newspaper, he addresses issues that relate to some unethical conduct by Facebook Inc. According to Naughton (2014), Facebook was found to have influenced users’ emotions. Facebook gets a lot of revenue by the adverts that are placed on its site. As such, when people click the adverts, this generates income for the company. In the article, Naughton (2014) reveals that the employees of the company adjusted the newsfeeds on people accounts. As such, the company appeared to have selected customized types of newsfeeds. According to the article, the company chose some emotional newsfeed and strategically placed them on people's accounts. When people logged into their accounts, they found emotional newsfeeds that made them click on certain sites that company favored. Naughton (2014) suggests that given the nature of Facebook, the company will continue to play with people's emotions with the intention of making revenue.
In the article, the ethical issue is that Facebook is using customers as a means to an end. Human emotions are part of people’s health. As such, when making products or offering services, it is vital for companies to ensure that they respect people’s feelings. In this article, the author shows how Facebook had predetermined intentions of playing with the emotions of people with the aim of boosting their profitability. What is evident in this case is that Facebook does not care about the feelings of its customers but it highly concerned with how it will use people’s emotions to make more returns. It would have been ethical if the organization made it a prerogative of customers to choose which newsfeeds to read.
Reference
Naughton, J. (2014). We shouldn't expect Facebook to behave ethically. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/06/we-shouldnt-expect-facebook-to-behave-ethically
