Question

Choose a public dispute from the news involving an organization. Who are the stakeholders and what are their interests that have contributed to the conflict? What is your diagnosis and best intervention strategy? Why? Please Explain it 500 words

Answer 1

The latest dispute involving an organization is of course the case regarding Facebook and its alleged collusion with Cambridge Analytica in leaking user data that has possibly helped in influencing the US presidential elections.

There are various stakeholders in this case. The organizations that are involved are Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. On the other side, parties that are victims of this data leak are the US government and users of Facebook on a global scale.

The gist of the problem lies in treating data as an asset and the trade of the same amongst various data researching firms and advertising agencies. Facebook is a global behemoth that has revolutionized the world of social networking. The very concept of this portal-where user themselves post details about themselves-creates fuzzy lines between what is private and what is not. On top of that, tailored promotions as per the interest of the user being featured on FB walls has often been touted as a preferable feature for FB. However, in all of this, the plot has been lost as to what is allowed and what is not. To make things worse, there are many markets globally where IT laws and privacy laws are not mature enough to address public grievances.

In the testimonies that the world has seen, where a flustered Mark Zuckerberg is sitting in front of congressmen and congresswomen, the CEO of this company has clearly made it clear that he did not have knowledge about the extent of this data leak. The coming days will probably throw some light in the extent of this business and what possible laws need to be enacted to contain this menace and yet somehow not infringe upon internet freedom.

Truth be told, there is no single best intervention strategy since the problem involved here is of global scale that involves laws across boundaries and coordination across various stakeholders of the society.

First and foremost, the users are to be educated with the importance of data and how one can guard the same. Facebook seems to ask users every time for permissions, however users give that permission without being aware of the consequences of the same. Here Facebook has a moral responsibility of raising awareness of how various apps and third party vendors can use data.

Secondly, various governments need to make their IT laws more agile and responsive so that they are in sync with recent digital developments. In this, Facebook will have to work with local governments and understand the respective policies and design their products accordingly.

The definition of terms such as hate speech, fake news and political campaigns need to be devoid of any ambiguity and Facebook needs to invest heavily in content filtering.