Digital Ethics
Ethics and controversies in online and digital technologies
Aiding the Cause or Enabling Performative Activism...
January 19, 2022
What are the ethics of sharing social justice posts on Instagram? Read More
Democratizing the Best or Enabling the Worst?
January 13, 2022
Is Amazon's easy self-publishing good or bad for democracy? Read More
Should Our Past Follow Us Forever Online?
December 13, 2021
What are the ethics of unpublishing or removing news items? Read More
Getting the News Out with Apple News+
December 7, 2021
What ethical concerns arise when Apple distributes the news? Read More
Twitter’s Difficult Choice in India
October 26, 2021
How should Twitter deal with government demands to regulate speech in India? Read More
The Latest in Dirty Campaign Tricks?
October 20, 2021
Do cheapfakes raise new ethical problems in political communication? Read More
A Tool for Racial Equality or Cancel Culture?
April 26, 2021
Should Yelp be in the business of branding businesses as racist? Read More
Ethical Targeting or Transgressing Ethics?
March 30, 2021
Is it ethical to use personalized data to target voters in political ad campaigns? Read More
Privacy versus Products in Targeted Digital Advert...
March 24, 2021
How far can digital advertisers go in using our personal data to sell their products? Read More
Stopping the Spread of Anti-Vax Memes
February 8, 2021
Should platforms censor anti-vaccination memes to help end the pandemic? Read More
The Ethics of Digital Contact Tracing
January 28, 2021
What worries arise when we use digital contact tracing to fight COVID-19? Read More
TikTok, Time to Snitch
October 21, 2020
Is it ethical to use TikTok to shame fellow college students who violate COVID-19 guidelines? Read More
Quelling Interference or Dissent?
October 20, 2020
Did Tumblr's purge of Russian misinformation accounts go too far? Read More
Gaming Platforms and Shocking Speech
September 14, 2020
When the gaming platform Twitch wants to police the speech of its users, what could go wrong? Read More
Doxing in the Name of Public Health
July 6, 2020
Is it ethical to name and shame those that violate travel precautions in the COVID-19 pandemic? Read More
Fighting (Online) Fire with Fire?
June 22, 2020
What are the ethics of using counterspeech to fight online harassment? Read More
Paying Your Way to the Top
May 20, 2020
Are purchases made in multiplayer video games unethical and unfair? Read More
Can Artificial Intelligence Reprogram the Newsroom...
April 27, 2020
As artificial intelligence plays an increasing role in newsrooms, what ethical issues arise? Read More
Are there Bigger Fish to Fry in the Struggle for A...
April 13, 2020
Is PETA right that our anti-animal sayings do more harm than good? Read More
The Different Species of the Online Catfish
March 24, 2020
What ethical complexities circle around catfishing and online deception? Read More
Beer Cans and Cancel Culture
February 5, 2020
What are the ethical challenges when journalism and cancel culture merge? Read More
Fighting the Amazon Fires with Misinformation
December 2, 2019
What are the ethical dilemmas posed by celebrity activists using not-so-accurate information on social media to save the environment? Read More
Secret Facebook Groups and the Ethics of Democracy
November 18, 2019
People are turning to secret Facebook groups to express their political opinions. What are the ethical implications of this trend for democracy? Read More
Social Media Activism or Mere Slacktivism?
November 12, 2019
When online activists vow to make a villain famous, what could go wrong? Read More
Matters of Facebook Live or Death
November 12, 2019
What are the ethical worries over Facebook Live and immediate internet broadcasting? Read More
Virtual Reality, Immersive Media, and Journalism
November 12, 2019
What are the ethics of using virtual reality in real journalism? Read More
Halloween Hijinks and Internet Shaming
April 3, 2019
What ethical decisions await those dressing up for Halloween--and those reacting to racially insensitive costumes? Read More
The Ethics of Computer-Generated Actors
February 13, 2019
What ethical concerns arise when filmmakers use CGI to resurrect dead actors? Read More
“One Does Not Simply Create a Meme”
January 14, 2019
When does the creation and sharing of internet memes go too far? Read More
Does the Photo Fit the News?
December 11, 2018
What happens when a powerful image becomes the face of the immigration debate? Read More
Digital Immortality on an App
December 10, 2018
When AI chatbots let us talk with the dead, what ethical issues might haunt us? Read More
Is It Only A Game?
December 6, 2018
First-person shooter video games are popular. But are they ethical to enjoy? Read More
“Some of My Best Friends are Internet Vigilantes”
December 5, 2018
What are the ethical issues that arise with naming and shaming racists online? Read More
How Can I Be So Mean to Myself?
December 4, 2018
What are the ethical concerns with the new phenomena of digital self-harm? Read More
Don’t “Like” My Children
November 28, 2018
What could go wrong when parents share information about their children online? Read More
When Actors Become Characters
November 26, 2018
What are the ethics of fictional works created by fans that involve real people as characters? Read More
Filtering Out Cyberbullying
November 23, 2018
What are the ethical issues raised by Instagram's efforts to filter out cyberbullying? Read More
To Catfish or Not to Catfish?
November 15, 2018
What are the ethical problems with "catfishing" online? Read More
Gaming the System?
November 4, 2018
What are the ethical problems with cheating in Fortnite? Read More
Boldly Going Where Studios Have Gone Before
October 31, 2018
When does fan fiction cross the line from inspired creativity to unethical stealing? Read More
AI and Online Hate Speech
September 25, 2018
Can AI save us from online hate speech? Or will it learn our worst traits? Read More
Google Assistant and the Ethics of AI
September 24, 2018
What ethical issues arise when realistic-sounding AI is used in human interactions? Read More
Doxing and Digital Journalism
July 6, 2018
When can journalists reveal the identity of controversial social media users? Read More
Finsta Fad
April 30, 2018
What are the real ethical issues raised by fake Instagram accounts? Read More
Swipe Right to Expose
April 24, 2018
What could go wrong with an investigative journalist covering the sordid side of the Rio Olympics? Read More
Biometrics, Data, and Privacy
April 17, 2018
Does national security trade off with privacy in biometric identification? Read More
Dying to Be Online
April 12, 2018
What could go wrong when you die on Facebook? Read More
Anonymity, Doxing, and the Ethics of Reddit
April 4, 2018
What ethical issues are created in Reddit's attempts to clean up its act? Read More
Fake News, Fake Porn, and AI
March 29, 2018
What are the ethical issues involved in the use of AI in creating fake video content? Read More