Social Media and Ethical Issues: Addressing Privacy, Security, and Manipulation Concerns

Social media became a useful tool that enlisted the participation of its users to create and share content, posing several ethical issues with IT professionals especially with most of them attributed to privacy, security, and rapid dissemination of information. This research aims to develop certain ethical principles to be followed by IT specialists in managing social media. The descriptive research method was employed to sample 18 individuals comprising IT professionals, social media managers, application developers and trainers. The study addresses certain ethical issues like data privacy, information security, content moderation and user monetization. Strong information security policies, legal mechanisms and consent from users were identified as protective measures of user data. Most respondents mentioned cyber-related threats and weak encryption to be some of the risks, and plans to eliminate these risks included vigorous encryption and observance of ethical principles. The recommendation in this study is that information technology professionals should be continuously exposed to ethical dilemmas while on duty and users should be more actively engaged in order to secure the benevolent use of social networking services. The results support the conclusion that social media technologies management involves not only adequate technical skills but also sufficient moral components.