Ethical topics

3. The internet, social media and stakeholders

If you are asked a question about this topic in the exam, you need to discuss the potential issues and consider how they affect each of the different groups of stakeholders.

So who are the stakeholders?

You, and all of the other users of these sites are stakeholders. How would the issues highlighted on the previous page affect you? How might they affect younger/older people or those who are vulnerable?

The organisation who owns the service is another stakeholder. What are their responsibilities? Who should they be protecting? What might happen to them if they continue to allow unethical content on their platforms? How might the public perceive them if they continue to read news stories about them? How might they be affected if advertisers decided they didn't want to be associated with the platform any longer?

Businesses / individuals who pay to advertise are another stakeholder. How might they be affected by negative news stories? Would it reflect badly on their own business?