Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 8-1-2022
Publication Title
International Journal for Technoethics
Keywords
Anonymity, Digital Technologies, Ethics, Panopticon, Philosophy, Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance
ISSN
1947-3451
Volume
13
Issue/No.
1
Abstract
Philosopher Jeremy Weissman theorizes a new approach to social media surveillance by utilizing a familiar theoretical model: the Panopticon. In effect, Weissman argues that social media has transformed ordinary people into prison guards within the Panopticon's public watchtower and endowed ordinary individuals with the power to track, survey, and discipline elite officials, once shielded from public scrutiny. This new power, however, comes with a catch. Social media subsumes individuals within an anonymous, de-individualized public, which erases individual difference while simultaneously and paradoxically promising to amplify that very difference. This review critically examines this paradoxical tension and the ethical concerns and challenges raised by social media's propensity to elicit anonymity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Furiasse, A. (2022). Reviewing the Ethics and Philosophy Behind Social Media's Crowdsourced Panopticon. International Journal for Technoethics, 13 (1) https://doi.org/10.4018/IJT.302627
DOI
10.4018/IJT.302627
