Abstract
This paper presents preliminary results of ongoing research on the ethics of using social media on a large scale in disaster management.
To date social media use by disaster response agencies has been relatively ad-hoc. The Slándáil project aims to build a system for harvesting publicly available data from social media and using it in an ethically responsible and appropriate way to enhance the response of emergency services to natural disaster.
The ethical framework draws on the traditions of Isaiah Berlin’s value pluralism and Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception in its approach. Value pluralism relates to an understanding that every pluralist society is organized around several and different sets of values and traditions. State of Exception theory is concerned with ethical consequences that arise when governments or state agencies arrogate to themselves extra powers in response to extraordinary circumstances, such as a natural disaster.
The implications of these ethical approaches for the Slándáil system are examined and discussed according to their impact on the various stakeholders: the system end-users, the public at large, the state and the emergency responders themselves. Implications for the technical design and governance of the system are also deduced and evaluated.
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Notes
- 1.
For the purposes of clarity, this paper uses the phrase ‘end users’ to refer to the users of the Slándáil system (i.e. emergency managers), not to the end users of social media technologies.
- 2.
Mainstream ethical theory has been criticized by so-called anti-theorists for losing sight of practical application in seeking to explain ethics principles beyond where such explanation is useful. [9].
- 3.
This quotation is often attributed to Voltaire, but was actually written by a biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall to illustrate his ideas on freedom of speech. [12].
- 4.
That is to say that they cannot be measured on the same scale as they are qualitatively different and irreducible.
- 5.
For the purposes of this paper the terms “state of exception” and “state of emergency” are used interchangeably.
- 6.
- 7.
The ICCPR, African Charter on Human Rights, American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), Arab Charter on Human Rights (Arab Charter) and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
- 8.
For instance, the European Commission on Human Rights has clarified the contours of the justification criterion, by understanding a public emergency crisis as a danger that is (1) present or imminent, (2) exceptional, (3) concerns the entire population, and (4) constitutes a ‘threat to the organised life of the community’.
- 9.
“If the respondent Government does not furnish the required justification itself, as it is required to do under article 4.2 of the Optional Protocol and article 4.3 of the Covenant, the Human Rights Committee cannot conclude that valid reasons exist to legitimize a departure from the normal legal regime prescribed by the Covenant”. [3, n. 90].
- 10.
To be clear: the Slándáil system itself is to be used at all phases of emergency management but certain data (personal data) should be masked (anonymised) at phases other than the response phase.
- 11.
It may be ethically justifiable that the data be used post-response phase in order to facilitate debriefing and ascertaining learnings which can be used to improve response to future disasters.
- 12.
The UN-SPIDER glossary gives the following as the phases of disaster response: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery. The most relevant ones for Slándáil are mitigation, preparedness and response. Post-response, debrief and review are necessary but do not fit particularly well into the UN_SPIDER phases. [20].
- 13.
Geale outlines the distinctions between triage in an emergency room situation and a disaster response situation: “In day-to-day [A&E] triage, the common sense rule is to serve persons whose condition requires immediate attention and defer care to those who are more stable and can afford to wait; however, all patients will eventually get care. The process helps to ensure that no one is lost, and all get care appropriate to their needs. In a disaster involving multiple victims, and resources are completely overwhelmed, new protocols come into play. Disaster triage allows that the most seriously injured are left to the end – and may even remain untreated – so that those who can be saved can be cared for. This approach is one of the few instances where the utilitarian rule applies in health care. The greater good rule can be justified because of the clear necessity for allocation of resources to benefit the most people.” [6].
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Jackson, D., Aldrovandi, C., Hayes, P. (2015). Ethical Framework for a Disaster Management Decision Support System Which Harvests Social Media Data on a Large Scale. In: Bellamine Ben Saoud, N., Adam, C., Hanachi, C. (eds) Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries. ISCRAM-med 2015. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 233. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24399-3_15
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