As an expert in the philosophy of technology, aa scholar and activist committed to finding ways to enhance well-being in digital environments, Dr. Wellner has given thought to how ethics need to be reformed to accommodate today’s challenges (e.g., climate change, hate speech in social networking platforms etc.).
Dr. Wellner examines how an ‘ethics of care’ approach can successfully wage war with fake news. To accomplish this, she and her research partner, Dr. Dymytro Mykhailov from Shanghai Jian Tong University, examined ways in which the feminist principles of ‘ethics of care’ could serve as a guidepost for the broad spectrum of players involved in the development, application, and use of algorithms as a tool to fight fake news.
Ethics of care is slowly entering the mainstream philosophy of technology, based on the understanding that this feminist approach is in fact gender-neutral, and not limited to situations in which women are the sole primary caregivers. Instead, it relates to care receivers (e.g., users, e.g., those who are affected by the fake news even without being users of the specific platform etc.) and caregivers (the algorithm and software developers), providing the flexibility required to keep pace with the rapidly changing world of software development,
To date, most of the solutions developed to fight fake news focused on the technology itself, and not on the diverse stakeholders involved in the development process. In this study, Drs. Wellner and Mykhailov chose to ‘begin at the beginning’, i.e., with the people who develop the software. This approach is based on the notion that it is the individual who is responsible for pursuing the ethical technologies which promote well-being and sustainability, drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach which takes all elements into account.
Fake news involves various stake holders: First and foremost – journalists and other media professionals, NGOs (especially those that aim to fight fake news), and legal professionals who are directly involved in this problem. Then come those stakeholders who have a wider expertise and can contribute to the solution – sociologists, technology developers, including the corporates that hired them. Others include politicians and policy makers, media influencers and end users who forward the fake news to their friends and exacerbate the problem.
As the starting point of her research, she implemented four principles in ‘ethics of care’ that can help practically in the fight against fake news, and adjusted them to the technology reality, by:
Dr. Wellner reminds us that ethics of care is not a panacea that can be implemented solely by end users. It is a coordinated effort that involves various stakeholders, including end-users. For end-users to distinguish between fact and fiction, there should be a solid infrastructure, both technologically and regulatorily.
With fake news endemic to contemporary society, the obvious question to be asked here is how can we practically help people distinguish between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’? How do we fight the pernicious influence of troll farms where fake news are produced on an industrial scale, and evildoers on social platforms?
To the question of how to help stakeholders get to the truth, and fight the influence of social media ‘evildoers’, she responds that we need to “dry the entire swamp”, rather than “deal with the individual mosquito”. This means ensuring that troll farms are unprofitable, both financially and socially. Those who work for them should be considered pariahs of society. Those who operate the farms should be subject to large fines and even imprisonment.
The EU’s DMA (Digital Market Act) and DSA (Digital Service Act) are first steps in this direction, as they place responsibility for false content squarely on the shoulders of platform operators. The next step should be taken by the United States, which needs to make these platforms liable for their content, effectively cancelling a section of American regulations which currently protect them.
Dr. Wellner is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Multidisciplinary Studies at HIT, having earned her Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University in the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Studies. Her expertise is in the philosophy of technology with a special focus on digital technologies and especially AI and Fintech.
She conducted this study with her colleague Dymitro Michaelov, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
