The use of twitter bots is very controversial because they can confuse people into thinking someone has a lot of followers or that certain topics are very popular. The popularity of a twitter account may influence how a person perceives a topic or a person, so confusing them is immoral. During the 2016 campaign, twitter bots were used by the runners in order to demonstrate that they had a huge support. This means that people may have been deceived. This was mainly done by Trump. Twitter bots are also a big problem because people would rather get information from social media and traditional news outlets that give presidential election information.
There are even more ethical problems that arise from creating tweet bots. Besides the illusion that makes people believe that certain politicians are more popular, twitter bots can also be used to create rumors or even fake news. If people makes millions of twitter bots that post fake information, then there will be people that believe that information and those people will spread it. In terms of the consequential ethical framework, creating twitter bots would be morally wrong because the end result would be the deception of million of people. Even if twitter bots resulted in the election of a goof president, it would be very difficult to determine if the result was actually good. In most cases involving the spread of fake news, using twitter bots would not have a positive effect because most of theses instances were not created with good intentions. It would even be possible that people would lose trust in information provided by social media outlets. This may be the reason why many people are skeptical of our current social media outlets. People taking advantage of twitter bots in a negative way would be very difficult to determine. Anyone can make an anonymous account with a fake email. This means that there is no way of limiting how many twitter bots and individual makes. As a result, it seems that the only way to eliminate the problems created by twitter bots it to eliminate the use of twitter bots all together. The problem with this is that it would remove a very valuable piece of technology just because a couple of people have abused it. If people want to reduce unreliable information, Twitter needs to figure out a way to stop people from abusing the number of twitter bots that they create. Twitter bots are a very useful piece of technology because it allows people to set automatic messages that would otherwise overwhelm them. Unfortunately, people take advantage of this technology by creating information that deceived the public. If this problem can not be solved, people should at least be informed of the problem that twitter bots create. If people are informed, perhaps they’ll think twice before only relying on information from only one resource. So after reading this, I hope people don’t rely solely on one source of information because some people may just be putting information out there to make money or to just finish an assignment.
1 Comment
Artificial intelligence is a big issue in computer science. Some people believe that a computer will never be capable of performing operations that a human can do, but others argue that technology is advancing so fast that it may be possible some day. People think that computers are now able to complete tasks much more efficient than people so combining it with learning algorithms can can result in astonishing accomplishments. There are different types of artificial intelligence because there are many different things that people want computers to be able to do by themselves. The most widely known are weak artificial intelligence and strong artificial intelligence.
Weak artificial intelligence is already very common and can even be found on people’s phones. It is very common because it is solely created to perform one task which it can easily do. Since technology is advancing so quickly, even the weak artificial intelligence is getting better than in the past. Besides the weak artificial intelligence, there is also strong artificial intelligence. In string artificial intelligence, deals with understand task that are completely new. Basically, string artificial intelligence is programmed is such a way that it learns enough information to be able to complete tasks that have not been directly programmed in the the system. Ethics has a lot to do with this topic because if systems can replicate work created by humans, there would be no point on hiring humans for mundane tasks. This can lead to many problems in terms of dealing with the security of people’s employment. Artificial intelligence is making it possible to have more work completed without people having to put as many hours in order to complete them in the traditional sense. This is good because it means that people will have to pay less for the result of that work since it will be cheap. But the fact that is cheap is a result of people not working to accomplish the work. Artificial intelligence has the potential to eliminate work that has been employing people for decades. Some careers may be created in order to maintain the equipment running the artificial intelligence, but those numbers are nothing near the number of people being laid off if it were to happen. The idea of artificial intelligence is intriguing because it has the potential to produce free labor, but that positive result can have negative questions. For this reason, people dealing with artificial intelligence will have to decide what side of the ethical dilemma they want to be in. As mentioned in the article Artificial intelligence and Employment, “According to their study, roughly 47% of total US employment is at risk from computerisation.” This means that almost half the population the United States could lose their jobs if artificial intelligence is implemented in places where computers or people can the the job. For these reasons, I think people should be excited about improvements in artificial intelligence but should also evaluate whether they are accomplishing things for their own benefit of the benefit of humanity. Bandwagon aggression has become a problem in recent years. Bandwagon aggression occurs when a person makes a comment online that has the potential to be offensive, but nothing occurs until one person starts abusing the person who commented. This leads to more people piling on and making the issue bigger than what it should have actually been. Bandwagon aggression makes it difficult for people to recover from mistakes. An example of the bandwagon aggression effect occurred to Lisa Greenwood. She wrote a racist comment involving Michelle Obama, people reacted by asking the company where she worked why they hired racist people. More people kept posting on twitter, and Lisa Greenwood ended up getting fired from the company where is she worked at.
I agree with the fact that Lisa Greenwood should have been fired. Her comment was racist and it demonstrated that she did not care since she posted it on social media. In this case Bandwagon aggression was good because it forced a company to reevaluate the kind of people that they hire. But I also think that bandwagon can be negative because of the influences random people can have. I’m not sure if the company fired her for being racist or because they were afraid that not firing her would make them lose money. If the latter is is true, this means that people can get people fired by supporting a perspective on the issue that would make a company look bad. The issue with bandwagon aggression is also the fact that someone sees an issue and doesn’t do anything until one person starts to address it. Addressing issues is good because it gives perspective to the people who were ignoring them, but bandwagon aggression is not the best approach. Bandwagon aggression leads to people supporting a cause because they want to be a part of something and not necessarily because they believe their cause is worth speaking about. This can lead to harassment. In the case of Lisa Greenwood, everything went well because she got what she deserved and the problem ended when she got fired. On the other hand, if there was a scenario where a person made a mistake and their company didn’t fire them, it is very likely that the amount of tweets wouldn’t stop. This would be considered harassment towards the person who made a mistake online. Basically, it would not be a good idea to stop something bad by doing something worse. There have been cases where Bandwagon Aggression seems to be the result of Karma, and good results have come out of it, but Bandwagon Aggression is very risky, so there are better methods for dealing with problem. Sometimes people just need to get a little push to do the right thing, but it is also possible for people to get carried along, and that may have negative consequences. Bandwagon Aggression is a problem that stems from the increased growth of the internet in recent years, and I hope that is is not the solution but a way to make people more aware of problems in society. Allowing children to access the internet can have a drastic effect on their behavior. I recently saw a video on a child who payed 7500 dollars for an xbox using his dad’s credit card. The child’s father is the one recording and asking the child what he had done. The father ended the video by telling his son that he could not have access to the internet anymore and that would never buy anything on ebay again. The dad also talks to his son about how much money 7500 dollars is and why it was necessary for him to understand what he had did. The child obviously did something wrong, but he did not seem to regret doing what he did even though he admitted to being mad for buying the very expensive xbox.
From watching the video, it is evident that the child’s action in buying the xbox was bad, but he was just a child who was given access to the internet. The child seemed about four years, so he is too young to comprehend what his actions resulted in. I’m not saying that it is the parent’s fault for not buying their child an xbox, but the parents could have done a better job at taking care of their financial information. While watching the video, I asked myself how the child got access to the parent's credit card and Ebay information. It was very likely that the parent had an automatic sign in to Ebay where the child just needed to look for the product he needed. Technology has facilitated the lives of people by making transactions almost automated; this includes having the customer only worry about specific pieces of information. For this reason, it is necessary for adults to be responsible with the information they provide and how they use technology. I believe it was the child's father's fault that the 7500 dollars xbox was bought, and I hope he learned his lesson because it could have been much worse. Although I believe the incident was the parent’s fault, I think the father handled the situation in a morally correct way. The child was not old enough to fully comprehend his actions, but his father made sure to explain what he did and why it was wrong. The child seemed to not be concerned with the amount that he had spent, and it was obvious that he did not understand the different between 75 dollars and 7500 dollars. Before the video ended, it seemed that the child was the one who learned his lesson, but in really the parents were the ones who paid 7500 dollars for their lesson. As a result of what occurred in the video, I believe people need to start being more secure with their personal information. Technology has made it easier for people to do tasks, but getting lazy leads to mistakes. In this case, the father lost 7500 dollars, but their could be more cases where people lose even more due to careless mistakes brought in by the advancement of technology. Social media has a very big influence on how people gather their information. People do not only rely on newspapers and television anymore. Social media has facilitated how people get their information and when they access it. Social media news has many benefits because it provides free information to people. People can go online and check the news instantaneously, and the information they check is constantly being updated. Not only this, but since information can easily be put online, people can get a lot of information in only one day. Unlike hard copies of news, social media provides a way for people to see news and then comment on that news with their personal opinions. The fact that news can be uploaded online by anyone also brings many benefits because people can share news that traditional media outlets would not consider important at the moment, so social media can provide news that is not filtered by traditional news media outlets. As a result, people can be aware of topics that are not occurring near them but that do make them reflect on their own moral compasses. News gathered from social media connects every end of the world. This means that people can help other people that are across the world without having to travel. In essence, news gathered from social media allows constantly updated information to be gathered by any person on Earth which leads to actions taken by people because people are naturally good.
There are many benefits to having news come from social media, but those benefits come only if people are responsible for the information they present. Since anyone can post information online, people looking for information may encounter pieces of information that have been fabricated. During the presidential election in 2016, there were news articles that showed fake information. There was an article about trump dying from a heart attack. This means that social media news can have a lot of information, fake or real, so people are going to have a difficult time trusting the information that comes from online news articles. Many times the reason why people don’t believe a piece of information is becuase they are soon told that that piece of information is fake, but there are instances where fake information is spread all over the internet and it seems more credible. And because anyone can post information the internet, there is a lot of information that is simply just garbage. As a result, I think people have become very untrusting of the news. This is not good because when real information comes, they will not believe it. And since a lot of information is bias, people suspect that the information they are obtaining is not trustworthy. And many news outlets only report on information that isn’t really news. The world is filled with fabricated information that is presented towards the public in way that doesn’t show all the aspects of a topic, so people can’t really trust any source of information and must make their best judgements in deciding what news to believe. The rogue twitter accounts against Trump are a perfect demonstrations of of a peaceful protest. They are not causing problems in terms of creating physical violence that resolved nothing. With this approach people can see how much of a problem Trump’s presidency is. As a result, rogue accounts have gained more popularity than the accounts they were imitating. This means that people are aware of this and still decide to follow the rogue accounts. People who work for the government cannot make public statements with the office they hold as a federal agent, so they have to express their views as ordinary citizens. I understand that the reason federal agents can’t take a position is because of the safety the United States provides for its citizens, and a government employee who supports a specific position can reveal sensitive government information. The problem with this is that government employees are being censored and their opinions aren’t really represented with the the information they posses.
There is no way of determining who created the accounts, so it is a perfect method to spread information that resists the claims that trump makes. If these rogue accounts were to be removed, it would suppress the information that has to go to the world. I don’t believe it is unethical to create a rogue twitter account. I actually think everyone should start making their own rogue twitter account. This will definitely make an impact on social media and all the other news outlets. I’m hoping that if these news outlets get a lot of attention, people will realize that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. There are obviously millions of people who do not support Trump, there are allegations that cheating occurred during the elections, and it is sad that nobody liked any of the candidates during the 2016 presidential election. Even though I think the rogue twitter accounts was an excellent way of peacefully protesting against Trump, I also think their is negative aspects to it which do not include breaking laws. Because they have millions of followers, they have to have some sense of responsibility. Millions of people are getting news from the rogue account rather than the official government account, so this can become a problem if very important information needs to go out to the public. But to be fair, important information should not come from twitter only. Overall, it is funny how people decided to revolt against the information Trump is making up. The best part is that Trump can’t really do anything about besides getting mad. Rogue twitter accounts like the White House Gossip is what makes people nervous, but at the same time it provides information that will not have been gathered otherwise. By following the rogue twitter accounts, everyone is taking the risk of getting false information, but at least people are entertained. As a result of the information I think fits this story, I have concluded that the rogue twitter accounts we’re a good idea. Portable technology has become very controversial because it collects user’s information, and nobody really knows if that information is completely confidential. One of the obvious problems with portable technology is that users can be tracked at all times. Technology such as cell phones and fitbits have built in GPS that have the potential to track a person even if the device is not being used by the user. Not only that, but fitbits also collect personal user data. This data includes readings such as: a person's heart rate, a person’s sleeping schedule, where a person goes for a run and at what time, and many others. In addition, a cell phone has build in cameras that, if intercepted by the wrong people, can have dire consequences. People use cell phones with the confidence that what they speak about won’t be used in another setting as long as both parties do are in accordance. The problem with this that the government can tap into cell phones with their spy towers. This information can be found in the article, “Turns Out Police Stingray Spy Tools Can Indeed Record Calls.” Portable technology puts people on the edge because the government and other groups with malicious intent can intercept important information from a person or from a business, yet people keep using portable technology.
I think people keep using portable technology because the benefit outweighs the cost. Everyone knows that portable technology comes with risk, but the negative side of these risks aren’t usually experienced by people. Most people hear about personal information being stolen from online articles or social media and never think that they will be the ones that are going to be negatively affected. On a personal scale, there are few people that are actually bothered by the risks that their portable technology brings to them and that are willing to do something about it. On the other hand, people assume they are safe because their government is taking care of them. This is true to a certain extent because there are threats that US civilians don’t even experience the threats because the US military takes care of them before it can reach the US. But what happens when the US government is the one intercepting people's information? This is why people need to address the issue that comes with portable devices. In my opinion, people think that problems will solve themselves so they don’t need to participate. The problem with this is that the reason problems seem to get fixed is because there are people who are actively seeking to make things right. Another way of seeing this is that using portable technology is a never ending battle because there will always be people with malicious intent and other good people trying to stop those people. So while it is not wrong to use a cell phone, a fitbit, or any other portable technology, it is wrong to ignore the problems they might come with and let other people try to solve it. Being morally ethical in a computer science career can be difficult due to the influence a software engineer may have for a specific project. The ethical dilemma demonstrated in “The code I’m still ashamed of,” by Bill Sourour, is an excellent example of how a software engineer may be put in a positions in which ignoring moral principles leads to better career opportunities. In his article, Sourour explains that he needed to create a misleading website that would push a new drug into the market. The drug was targeting teenage girls, which Sourour saw as mischief.
After reading Sourour’s article, I decided to focus on two big topics that would allow me to better understand his experience. In “The code I’m still ashamed of,” Sourour explains that he did end up creating the misleading website which eventually led to him quitting his job. Before quitting his job and right after the creation of the website, he found out that a teenage girl had died from the symptoms of the drug his website helped promote. The first topic I will focus on is whether I believe it was ethical for him to continue his work on the website. Due to the fact that Sourour knew the purpose of the website was to mislead people, continuing his work was unethical, but it is very easy to understand why he continued. Based on the information he had, Sourour could not have foreseen the death of the girl and the fact that she used the drug doesn't necessarily mean that she used it because of the website Sourour created. Even though it was unethical for him to continue, the true blame should have been put on the client who requested the creation of the website and on the company that decided meet the needs of that client. I believe being ethical goes further than deciding whether something is bad or wrong because most problems in the real world don’t have binary solutions. I believe there are different levels of ethics. For example, stealing a candy from a baby and murdering people are both unethical but it is obvious that the levels of ethicalness are not the same. So while I do believe Sourour’s decision to continue was unethical, I don’t think it was unethical to the point where he should be considered an unethical person. The second topic I am going address focuses on three ethical values that were in question when Sourour made his decision. The first ethical value in question was personal integrity. Sourour felt that what he was doing wasn’t morally correct but he did it anyways which demonstrated no moral integrity in his part. He did demonstrate some integrity when he decided to quit some time after the incident. Another important ethical value that Sourour did not follow was honesty. Sourour knew that his website would mislead teenage girls, so his actions did not demonstrate him as an activist for honesty. Finally, the ethical value Sourour did demonstrate was loyalty. He was loyal to his company and did what he had to do in order to satisfy the client who was paying his company. Although his loyalty was misplaced, he still completed his work. |
|