{"id":12,"date":"2009-05-09T17:54:04","date_gmt":"2009-05-09T17:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/is-facebook-acting-ethically.html"},"modified":"2009-05-09T17:54:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-09T17:54:04","slug":"is-facebook-acting-ethically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/is-facebook-acting-ethically.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Facebook Acting Ethically?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big question that caught my eye in the news recently regards Facebook’s ethical obligations. <\/p>\n

13 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. Personally, no matter how abhorrent I find the blatant dismissal of the Holocaust, I can’t stand behind the idea of outlawing a person’s right to believe in these thoughts.

While attorney Brian Cuban<\/a> seems to be steering clear of First Amendment issues, he is up in arms about the fact that Facebook, as a private company which does<\/b> have the right to restrict speech, hasn’t removed Holocaust Denial groups such as “Holocaust: A Series of Lies,” and “Holocaust is a Holohoax”.<\/p>\n

So the question isn’t if Facebook has a legal obligation to remove these groups, but if they have an ethical <\/em>obligation. <\/p>\n


\n
After thinking on it a bit, I have to say no. In fact, I would say that under the ideals many of us live by, they have an ethical obligation not<\/b> to remove these groups, provided they do not cause or advocate harm.<\/p>\n

I think many people would agree that these groups are protected under freedom of speech in the United States – their purpose is not violent or threatening. As point of fact, Facebook often removes groups that promote violence, such as pro-KKK groups. <\/p>\n

I am 100% against hate-speech. However, is disbelief in the historical accuracy of the Holocaust hate-speech? In my opinion, it’s more lunacy than hateful. <\/p>\n

This is an issue that goes far beyond Facebook. At what point are disagreeable thoughts criminal? Or, for the purposes of this blog, unethical? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big question that caught my eye in the news recently regards Facebook’s ethical obligations. 13 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. Personally, no matter how abhorrent I find the blatant dismissal of the Holocaust, I can’t stand behind the idea of outlawing a person’s right to believe in these thoughts.While attorney Brian Cuban…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-ethics-morality","category-ethics-policy","category-ethics-responsibility"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Facebook Acting Ethically? - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/05\/is-facebook-acting-ethically.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Facebook Acting Ethically? - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The big question that caught my eye in the news recently regards Facebook’s ethical obligations. 13 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}