Ethical considerations for using social media : is it okay to share

Abstract EN

Digital media and its technologies facilitated for young people to participate in a wide range of activities including creation and collaboration of engaging content in various ways on social media.

In the light of the recent events in Egypt, digital media represented in social media, such as Facebook, played a vital role in creating and shaping public opinion and responses of its users, especially young people, to various societal topics and situations.

However, there are no official rules neither ethical considerations that regulate and manage creation and contribution of content on social media as a free space, but merely unspoken basis.

Those dynamic participations on social media raised an important ethical question, which is “what is considered to be appropriate to post or share and what is not? ” to ensure safe and equal participation for all the citizens.

The paper is a qualitative research based on systematic reviews that discussed ethical consideration of participation on social media to draw conclusions and answer the research questions.

The major finding for the study that the ethical considerations for creating, participating and sharing content on social media are debatable due to the lack of definitive norms because users still experiencing how social and digital media works, the rapid exchange of information on them, and ability to be anonymous.