3.4. Bots and Responsibility

As we think about the responsibility in ethical scenarios on social media, the existence of bots causes some complications.

3.4.1. A Protesting Donkey?

To get an idea of the type of complications we run into, let’s look at the use of donkeys in protests in Oman:

“public expressions of discontent in the form of occasional student demonstrations, anonymous leaflets, and other rather creative forms of public communication. Only in Oman has the occasional donkey…been used as a mobile billboard to express anti-regime sentiments. There is no way in which police can maintain dignity in seizing and destroying a donkey on whose flank a political message has been inscribed.”

• From Kings and People: Information and Authority in Oman, Qatar, and the Persian Gulf [c32] by Dale F. Eickelman[1]

In this example, some clever protesters have made a donkey perform the act of protest: walking through the streets displaying a political message. But, since the donkey does not understand the act of protest it is performing, it can’t be rightly punished for protesting. The protesters have managed to separate the intention of protest (the political message inscribed on the donkey) and the act of protest (the donkey wandering through the streets). This allows the protesters to remain anonymous and the donkey unaware of it’s political mission.

3.4.2. Bots and responsibility

Bots present a similar disconnect between intentions and actions. Bot programs are written by one or more people, potentially all with different intentions, and they are run by others people, or sometimes scheduled by people to be run by computers.

This means we can analyze the ethics of the action of the bot, as well as the intentions of the various people involved, though those all might be disconnected.

3.4.3. Reflection questions

• How are people’s expectations different for a bot and a “normal” user?

• Choose an example social media bot (find on your own or look at Examples of Bots (or apps).)

  • What does this bot do that a normal person wouldn’t be able to, or wouldn’t be able to as easily?

  • Who is in charge of creating and running this bot?

  • Does the fact that it is a bot change how you feel about its actions?

• Why do you think social media platforms allow bots to operate?

  • Why would users want to be able to make bots?

  • How does allowing bots influence social media sites’ profitability?

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[1]

We haven’t been able to get the original chapter to load to see if it indeed says that, but I found it quoted here [c33] and here [c34]. We also don’t know if this is common or representative of protests in Oman, nor that we fully understand the cultural importance of what is happening in this story. Still, we are using it at least as a thought experiment.