1. Introduction

• How does social media influence our world and us, in good and bad ways?

• How do the decisions made by the creators of social media platforms affect how it is used and what people do?

• How do social media bots change the dynamics on the platform?

• What can we learn about people from social media data?

• What are the ethical trade-offs made in all of these situations?

In this book, we will try to start answering questions like this. To get us started let’s look at a particular situation that happened on Social Media: the case of Justine Sacco’s racist joke tweet, and then read actor Kumail Nanjiani’s reflections on ethics in tech.

• 1.1. The case of Justine Sacco’s racist joke tweet
• 1.2. Kumail Nanjiani’s Reflections on Ethics in Tech
• 1.3. Learning Goals
• 1.4. Bibliography