Deontological Ethics And Net Neutrality In The EU Essay.

Discuss About The Deontological Ethics Christian Research Institute?

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a modernized technique to get best telecommunication services. With the help of ICT, communication among people worldwide has become so easy and quick. Moreover, content sharing can be done in secured and reliable way by using ICT services. ICT is also known as advanced version of IT and it consists of addition telephone lines and wireless signals and computers. Besides this, other software solutions such as enterprise software and middleware software etc. are also involved in ICT. Therefore, we can say that ICT provides various benefits to its users but on other side there are also some ethical issues that are concerned with ICT. The management ICT related ethical issues include security, privacy, social inclusion, community and identity, cyber-crime and ICT professionalism etc. Among all these ethical issues, the selected media article is based on ethical issue of security that is commonly encountered by IT users. Through this report, I will discuss that particular issue of security, investigate the media article on behalf of classical ethical theories and also focus on solution to resolve security related issues (Digital Single Market, 2017).

The media article is about Net Neutrality. According to article, EU has committed to provide net neutrality i.e. open internet to all people of this continent. The rules and regulations for net neutrality have adapted by EU and beneficial for digital single market. Under this process of net neutrality, enforceable rights are declared for end-users to obtain and distribute content of internet and services according to choice. Furthermore, these rules also ensure that all requirements for using open internet will be same for everyone in Europe without any discrimination. There will also be no throttling and blocking will be occurred in case of online services, applications and as well as for content. Every person has freedom to use any kind of app accounting to their choice. Another advantage of open internet is that whole network traffic will be treated equally without any partiality (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). The appropriate security treatments for regular network traffic will be provided equally to all. As I have mentioned that there are common rules for accessing open network, so there is no provision for selecting winners and losers among internet users for deciding that which appropriate services and content are available. This discussion clears that net neutrality is good for all people in EU but the ethical issue that I have noticed in this process is of security. If internet will be used openly then chances of security will be reduced. To reduce this issue some essential security steps are required to taken by EU government. Before discussing about security steps, I will analyze the media article on behalf of classical ethical theories.

Classical Theories of Ethics

With the help of classical ethics theories it is easier to measure the overall morality of article’s information that to what extent it is wrong and right. The main ethical theories are utilitarianism, deontology, virtue and contract (Alexander & Moore, 2017).

This classical theory of ethics provides information regarding accuracy and inaccuracy of an action (Christian Research Institute, 2017).       Besides this, this theory also defines that a solution is considered to be better if it has potential to enhance utility of action at maximum level. In selected media article the action that is taken by government of EU is right. This is because government understands the importance of internet and its requirement for people to do different business and personal tasks. Now people can communicate and sharing content easily from one place to other securely. They no need to worry about confidentiality of content because according to media article government has founded solutions to control security and privacy issues in case of open internet. That is why there is uncertainty to say that this action of government is correct according to utilitarianism (SearchCIO, 2017).

Another classical theory is of deontology and it is based on principles of duties and claims. Moreover, it is also concerned about the correctness and incorrectness of duties and claims. The main fact behind the deontology is to identify that through which entity an accurate action can be taken and penalties of wrong action are not considered (Sevenpillarsinstitute.org, 2017). This thing can also be found in media article because EU has adapted net neutrality even if government knows about the security concerns of this. But without considering consequences of open internet EU government has adapted it and also ready to provide appropriate solutions to control security and privacy regarding issues. So according to this theory, media article is also suitable.

Under this classical ethical theory actions and their inaccuracies are not considered, representatives’ good personality traits are considered. As in media article, EU is taking challenge to implement net neutrality and also to maintain high level of security and privacy for people’s information, so government can be considered as a good representative under classical ethical theory of virtue. Besides this, EU government is also doing efforts to implement advanced security technologies to get rid of problem.

The fourth classical theory of ethics is contract. It is also known as theory of social contract. This theory describes that to live together there is requirement of morality that consists of some rules and also follow the concepts that both moral and political duties of persons are basically based on a contract or an agreement between them. If I talk about article about EU’s process of net neutrality then I can say that there is a mutual understanding or an agreement between people who will use service of open internet and government of EU that both will not break trust of each other. It means, the open internet service will be secured for all by EU and no user will misuse this technology. In this way, this social contract will remain for long time.

After analyzing the article of open internet on the behalf of above discussed ethical theories, I can say that this article fulfill all the requirements of morality and classical theories of ethics. Now in upcoming paragraphs, I will discuss some solutions that will be provided by EU government for secure implementation of open internet. It is necessary because in case of open internet issues of hacking, phishing and virus attacks etc. issues can occur (Opentextbc.ca, 2017).

Following are some essential solutions that can be used to get rid of ethical issue of security.

1. The first solution is monitoring of overall market developments by NRA i.e. National Regulatory Authorities. The main responsibilities that will be carried out by NSA are management of network traffic, implementation of commercial processes and also execution of guidelines (Techterms.com, 2017).
2. Another step that will be taken by EU government for managing security and privacy of information is testing the quality of open internet access service (Ruslim, 2017). Net Neutrality requires appropriate network solutions so that everyone can get better outcomes.
3. Moreover, there is an organization of BEREC that can provide special guidelines to maintain long term security and privacy of open internet. Both NRAs and BEREC works in collaboration to provide best service to its customers (Austin, 2017)

Conclusion

In conclusion, I can say that ethical issues like security and privacy can be formed more harmful if these will not be controlled on time. According to media article, EU government has value for sustainability of internet’s confidentiality and reliability that is why it is providing service of net neutrality with proper security and that must be done by every internet service provider for its customers.

References

SearchCIO. (2017). What is ICT (information and communications technology, or technologies)? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (2017). Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/ICT-information-and-communications-technology-or-technologies

Techterms.com. (2017). ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) Definition. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://techterms.com/definition/ict

Sevenpillarsinstitute.org. (2017). Moral Theories. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/morality-101/moral-traditions

Austin. (2017). Chapter 6 - Four Classic Theories of Ethics, The Ethical Journalist, …. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/laustinnc/chapter-6-4-classic-theories-of-ethics?next_slideshow=1

Ruslim. (2017). Ethical theories. Slideshare.net. economics 22 September 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/NicolasRuslim/ethical-theories-40471063

Opentextbc.ca. (2017). 2.9 Social Contract Theory | Ethics in Law Enforcement. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://opentextbc.ca/ethicsinlawenforcement/chapter/2-9-social-contract-theory/

Digital Single Market. (2017). Open Internet. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/open-internet-net-neutrality

Christian Research Institute. (2017). Ethics Theories: Utilitarianism Vs. Deontological Ethics - Christian Research Institute. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://www.equip.org/article/ethics-theories-utilitarianism-vs-deontological-ethics/

Alexander, L., & Moore, M. (2017). Deontological Ethics. Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2017). utilitarianism | psychology. Retrieved 22 September 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/utilitarianism-philosoph