The Debate on the Moral Responsibilities of Online Service Providers.
Online service providers (OSPs)-such as AOL, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter-significantly shape the informational environment (infosphere) and influence users' experiences and interactions within it. There is a general agreement on the centrality of OSPs in information societies, but littl...
| Published in: | Science & Engineering Ethics Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 1575 - 1604 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Dec2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=119355994&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 119355994 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13533452 GNI jtl: Science & Engineering Ethics issn: 13533452 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2016 vid: 22 iid: 6 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 119355994 10.1007/s11948-015-9734-1 ppf: 1575 ppct: 29 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 906KB tig: atl: The Debate on the Moral Responsibilities of Online Service Providers. aug: au: Taddeo, Mariarosaria Floridi, Luciano affil: Oxford Internet Institute , University of Oxford , 1, St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS UK su: Online information services industry Responsibility Acquiescence (Psychology) Centrality Information society Multiculturalism sug: subj: Online information services industry Responsibility Acquiescence (Psychology) Centrality Information society Multiculturalism keyword: Freedom of speech Human rights Levels of abstraction Moral responsibilities Online service providers Privacy ab: Online service providers (OSPs)-such as AOL, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter-significantly shape the informational environment (infosphere) and influence users' experiences and interactions within it. There is a general agreement on the centrality of OSPs in information societies, but little consensus about what principles should shape their moral responsibilities and practices. In this article, we analyse the main contributions to the debate on the moral responsibilities of OSPs. By endorsing the method of the levels of abstract (LoAs), we first analyse the moral responsibilities of OSPs in the web (LoA). These concern the management of online information, which includes information filtering, Internet censorship, the circulation of harmful content, and the implementation and fostering of human rights (including privacy). We then consider the moral responsibilities ascribed to OSPs on the web (LoA) and focus on the existing legal regulation of access to users' data. The overall analysis provides an overview of the current state of the debate and highlights two main results. First, topics related to OSPs' public role-especially their gatekeeping function, their corporate social responsibilities, and their role in implementing and fostering human rights-have acquired increasing relevance in the specialised literature. Second, there is a lack of an ethical framework that can (a) define OSPs' responsibilities, and (b) provide the fundamental sharable principles necessary to guide OSPs' conduct within the multicultural and international context in which they operate. This article contributes to the ethical framework necessary to deal with (a) and (b) by endorsing a LoA enabling the definition of the responsibilities of OSPs with respect to the well-being of the infosphere and of the entities inhabiting it (LoA). pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Science & Engineering Ethics is a copyright of Springer, 2016. All Rights Reserved. item: Science & Engineering Ethics holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2016 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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