Whistleblowing Flashcards
whistle blowing
-when someone, usually an employee, leaks information about the wrongdoings of a company
-be bad business practices regarding employees, costumers, society or enviroment
Facebook case study
-Frances Haugen worked for Facebook + leaked internal documents which came to be known as ‘The Facebook Files’
-one quote from files: “we make body issues worse for 1 in 3 teenage girls”
-shows their algorithm promoted posts that caused anger or outrage.
upside of it
negative business practice is brought to light which gives it a better chance of being brought to an end.
downside of it
the company might suffer financial losses or even go bankrupt, causing some of or all of its staff to lose their job. In cases where the company was doing good, that could also be stopped.
case study: edward snowden
-in 2013, former intelligence contracter for NSA revealed existence of previously highly classified intelligence gathering survellience programs
Utilitarianism on Whistleblowing
-Act: its morally right depedning on situation
-if it causes more happiness then not its morally good
-if less then morally wrong
-eg if business is causing a lot of happiness then, WB bout some suffering it is causing, e.g. through exploitation, might be wrong.
kant on WB
-he thinks lying cant be universalised + so always wrong
- against lying to cover up negative business practises, even if that truth being brought to light resulted in the failure of the businesses + employees who may have done nothing wrong nonetheless losing their jobs.
- It is your duty never to lie.
- treatment of people as mere means to be wrong due to the second formulation of the categorical imperative
- wb involve exploitative or deceptive business practices that treat people as a mere means=why hes in favour of it
case study: enron
-used to work for cia
-majority stuff he leaked linked to milatry info
-served 30 yrs= guilty
