FACEBOOK RISK ASSESSMENT DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS AND HINTS
Hello All –
Please see the detailed instructions and hints for our case: Facebook Risk Assessment. You will use the following template to complete the risk assessment assignment: 4073 FACEBOOK ETHICAL RISK ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE FA 21.docxDownload 4073 FACEBOOK ETHICAL RISK ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE FA 21.docx
Our video viewership numbers are quite low, so I thought maybe you prefer to have written instructions (I do), but I also used to blog…so look at this like a blog post. No, it does not follow the Professional Writing Rules I require for each assignment. Yes, you must use the Professional Writing Rules (Professional Writing Rules for All Assignments) for all assignments.
Let’s talk about our next case, the Facebook Risk Assessment.
Here’s the scenario –
You are employed by a new member of the Facebook Oversight Board. While the board is limited to reviewing specific content (CNBC Oversight BoardLinks to an external site.) or (The Conversation 6 Questions about the Facebook Oversight BoardLinks to an external site.), your employer has asked you to prepare a risk assessment of Facebook’s entire business in order to better understand the current environment.
Your employer is concerned about the limitations of her appointment and potential impact on Facebook operations. She has asked you to develop a risk assessment of the top three risk issues at Facebook, provide a short background, current impacts, potential solutions and your proposed solution.
To complete this assignment, you are going to demonstrate the five steps of ethical decision making. You may find it helpful to review this power point from earlier in our course – 4073 ETHICAL DECISION MAKING REFERENCE FOR FB CASE.pptxDownload 4073 ETHICAL DECISION MAKING REFERENCE FOR FB CASE.pptx
Step 1: You need to find three ethical issues regarding the recently released and reported Facebook Papers. As mentioned in the agenda, you need to read the Wired article “15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook (Links to an external site.)” AND the Verge article “Eight Things We Learned From the Facebook Papers (Links to an external site.).”
You need to watch the free Frontline Documentary “The Facebook Dilemma” – https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/facebook-dilemma/Links to an external site. – part one and part two. I suggest you take notes of stakeholders and ethical issues while you read/watch this content.
The risk assessment requires you to identify three different issues at Facebook.
You will complete one page per issue.
On each page, you will identify the issue, provide high level background, develop options for remediating the risk, and then choose one of those options to implement.
Issues: “But Professor Coonce, how do I find ethical issues at Facebook?” Consider all of the different ethical issues covered this semester – corporate governance (board of directors, government regulators), treatment of employees, treatment of suppliers, treatment of customers, product based issues and lack of leadership…
Review your notes from the articles and the documentary. You can leverage additional research on Facebook. I pulled a few articles in addition to the required reading/watching above.
Facebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making – WSJ.pdf Download Facebook’s Internal Chat Boards Show Politics Often at Center of Decision Making – WSJ.pdf How Facebook Failed the World – The Atlantic.pdf Download How Facebook Failed the World – The Atlantic.pdf Facebook Debates What to Do With Its Like and Share Buttons – The New York Times.pdf Download Facebook Debates What to Do With Its Like and Share Buttons – The New York Times.pdf Facebook Papers Show Employees Raised Concerns About Misinformation – The New York Times.pdf Download Facebook Papers Show Employees Raised Concerns About Misinformation – The New York Times.pdf In India, Facebook Struggles to Combat Misinformation and Hate Speech – The New York Times.pdf Download In India, Facebook Struggles to Combat Misinformation and Hate Speech – The New York Times.pdf
Step 2: Background
Tell me a little background on the issue. I do not need an essay. I want you to demonstrate you understand the issue.
Also, you need to understand the following about Facebook:
Board of Directors,
Mark Zuckerberg’s Ownership Power,
Revenue Totals, and
Business Lines.
You don’t need go deep on these topics, but you must understand the basic power dynamics of the business in order to develop a strong remediation strategy.
Step 3: Current and Potential Impacts
Tell me why this issue is a problem. What are the impacts? Describe the impacts the issue is causing.
Think why does this matter? Who cares about this? Why do they care? Remember our lessons on stakeholders.
Tell me what you think!
Step 4: Remediation Options
How can you fix this issue? Give me three options that you believe may help remediate or lessen the risk. Can you eliminate the risk? Can you throw more benefits or money at the issue? Can you make it stop completely and if so, how? Reviewing our course video titled Ethical Decision Making might be helpful when developing alternative remediation options.
That being said, you must be thoughtful about what you propose.
Remember why businesses exist – while the business may have a higher purpose stated (i.e., Facebook mission – “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Editor’s note: ahem. ok, then.), most businesses are required to make money, employ humans and deliver the services they promise in order to exist.
Step 5: Suggested Remediation Strategy
In step 4, you developed three remediation options. Choose the best option. The best option is the one you believe will help mitigate the risk and remediate the issue while allowing the business to continue.
HINT: If one of your remediation options is to kill a major part of the revenue stream of Facebook, I would not suggest you use this as your final option.
Reminder, here is how Facebook makes money: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/120114/how-does-facebook-fb-make-money.asp (Links to an external site.)
You must be mindful of developing/choosing a remediation strategy that does not kill the revenue stream.
Remember, you are working for a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. To offer an option that kills the business will hurt your grade.
How you will be graded? I want you to find the issue, provide me background demonstrating you understand the issue, offer creative solutions for remediating the issue, and offer the best solution to implement. I want to see you understand the issue, understand the business, and understand how to mitigate risks. I may not agree with your remediation option, but as always, if you JUSTIFY your response, you will be graded accordingly.
Here is a two-minute high level outline of one issue that I would consider – heads up that this information is from 2019 and FB is in a much different situation now.
I am estimating you will need about 20-30 minutes to complete each issue.
https://popular.info/p/the-facts-about-facebooks-fact-checking (Links to an external site.)
I am not going to complete the entire case study, but I did find this particular story interesting. If I were to write it up as a risk assessment, I would state that the issue is that while fact-checking is in place, it is only affecting a small amount of overall content. For my background, I would cite an example of the issues associated with fake news, list the news organizations assisting with the reviews, and the budget/expenditures of the fact-checking effort. For my remediation strategy, I may offer to bring it in-house, create an independent group of journalists with a much larger budget, or increase the current budget capacity to make sure at least 50% of the content tagged as fake is reviewed within a 24 hour period.
I would choose that last option. I would also provide the pros (more fake news is demoted/removed) and cons (more money and let’s be honest, more accountability on Facebook) associated with the option.
You will complete all five steps for each of the three issues. You will use bullet points in your responses – your boss will rarely ask you for an essay response, so developing concise meaningful bullet points is an important skill to practice. Using bullet points is a component of following instructions. If you fail to do so, points will be deducted.
You will use the attached template to complete the assignment. 4073 FACEBOOK ETHICAL RISK ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE FA 21.docxDownload 4073 FACEBOOK ETHICAL RISK ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE FA 21.docx
Please let me know if you have any questions!
p.s. the text in the template should be deleted. I used it to show you the potential layout/length I expect to see in your final submission.
