Facebook and the French Flag

An Ethics Case Study

Irina Raicu

On November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks killed more than 120 people in Paris. Among the dead were citizens of more than a dozen countries.

Many people took to Facebook to express their shock and seek information about friends and family members. That same evening, Facebook enabled afeature that it had used before, which allows users to overlay the colors of a flag over their profile pictures in order to express support for a cause or solidarity with a particular group. In this case, the overlay consisted of the colors of the French flag.

Many Facebook users chose to activate that feature, superimposing the French flag over their photos in order to express their sorrow and solidarity with the people of Paris. Others, however, expressed a number of different frustrations with Facebook's actions.Some people complainedthat Facebook had not enabled a similar show of support for the victims of terrorist bombings in Lebanon, which had taken place a day before the Paris attacksor for other victims in other parts of the world. Others questioned the value of placing any flags as a show of support, claiming that such use of symbolism would make users "part of the 'us and them' mentality." One commentator saw this action as "self-involvement masquerading as empathy for others." In an article titled "Facebook's Tragedy Features and the Outrage They Inspired," aWiredjournalist noted, "I've seen the same effect offered to me on certain weekends asking if I want a green and yellow filter to show my enthusiasm for the University of Oregon Ducks."

(In response to the Paris attacks, Facebook also enabled a separate feature, called "Safety Check," which was subsequentlyused by more than 4 million people in Paris; that action by the company was also met with both gratitude and critique for the way it has been deployed so far.)

Before answering the questions below, please review thisarticle about ethical decision-making and the considerations that we shouldkeep in mindwhen faced with an ethical issue.

Discussion Questions

1. Was Facebook acting ethically in enabling the French flag overlay for its users? Why, or why not?
2. What, if anything, might Facebook do differently to achieve more ethical results in similar circumstances?
3. Were users who took advantage of the feature acting ethically? Why, or why not?