You will not be doing 10 pages. You only need to do 3.5. You will be answering only question 3.

Questions to be answered in paper:

1. To what extent are social media companies responsible for protecting user data, and how much should they be able to exploit that data for profit? Feel free to use examples from the internet to make your point.
2. Are user agreements in which individuals consent to the collection and sale of personal data sufficient, or is their intentional complexity unethical? Feel free to reference examples and explain them to make your point.
3. Should social media companies such as Facebook act as platforms with minimal regulations or as publishers that regulate the content of posted material? How are other countries dealing with this issue and how does that affect how a business might collect user data? Feel free to use examples from social media or news articles or other research to make your point.

Instructions:

In a 10 page (minimum) paper, please answer the above questions. Please start by reading the following article (Social media paper.student case information.pdf). After reading the article, you must conduct further research into this topic as well.

Within your paper you must apply the First Amendment, Campaign Finance Law, and Communications Decency Act Section 230. Students must also address how contract law and internet contracts may be related to this issue, as well as the overarching concern of business ethics. You will also discuss how internationally this issue is being addressed by governments, and then how that affects how businesses collect data. **I will be looking for these key words in your paper! You will lose points if you don’t use these topics within your answers somewhere!

“Apply” means to define what the law is (very briefly, one to two sentences at most) and then incorporate it into your discussion. [For example: The 5th Amendment of the Constitution allows individuals to protect themselves and not testify against themselves in court by “pleading the 5th”. Therefore, in the case provided, when Sally was arrested for shoplifting and required to be questioned about her whereabouts on the night clothes were stolen from a store, she could “plead the 5th” and state she has the right against self-incrimination.]

Students must use outside references other than those included or discussed in the case discussion.

Paper MUST comply with the following:

• Separate title page (APA format) with students’ full name (all students in group), each students’ ID#, course name and section # of class. PLEASE include in the title page what parts of the paper EACH student worked on (example: Rebecca Nieman did Question #1).
• Separate bibliography page (APA format) with all references used. You MUST include within the body of your paper “in-text” citations as well. In other words, if you paraphrase, quote or use any material that helps you write your sentence that is NOT your own, 100% original idea, you must include a citation. Here is a resource to help you! https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html. (Links to an external site.)
• Double-spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1” margins on all sides, 8×11 sized paper, paper must be white in color, ink must be black.
• Students MUST use Roman Numerals to break up each section (example: I, II, III) to separate sections. You should have THREE (3) distinct sections based on the three questions listed above that you must answer. (You are allowed to also include sub-numbering). See an example here of what a paper using Roman Numerals and sub numbering looks like: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/190/2016/05/31190743/cfd2364a019a78966689079414a2401d.jpg (Links to an external site.). In other words, paper MUST NOT be one, long document!
• Include page numbers on the bottom, right side of each page. DO NOT NUMBER the title page or bibliography.
• A minimum of 8 references must be used overall. In other words, there should be at least 8, separate references listed in the Bibliography. A “separate reference” does NOT mean just a different page in a book or sub-page/secondary page in a website!

PS: At the bottom of this page there is a Grading Rubric I’ve created that will allow you to see how I am grading you as well as how much each section is worth:)

Learning objectives:

This final paper will synthesize your understanding of business contracts, business ethics and constitutional issues and how these can all work together in creating a problem or concern for a company.

Rubric

Social Media Group Project Rubric

You will be answering question 3 only.