Social Media and Social Responsibility

16-year-old girl 'gang raped' at rave, photos posted to Facebook: RCMP

Normally, I write about military related topics but today I am going to digress from that a little to give my point of view on something different.

At what point does a Social Media Companies right to run its business end and the right of a gang rape victim begin? When does a company become responsible to the people to ensure that the right thing is done and that their safety is preserved?

These are some of the questions that I have been asking myself since I heard this terrible story. The short version is, a girl was raped by multiple men after being drugged and the act was photographed and videotaped and posted on the net. I cannot imagine what the victim and her family must be going through. The RCMP has reported that that possession of the photos is criminal offence and anyone possessing or posting them to the net could be prosecuted.

Then why aren’t they being prosecuted? Why is the Social Network not being compelled to give up information to the police about people posting and possessing these photos? Does this not make the operators of the Social network complicit in a criminal act? It would if it were me or any other private citizen. In my view, this girl, and her family have the right to justice no matter the cost or how big the undertaking. There are many ways that that the media site can do the right thing, my question is, do they want to? When every page on their site has advertisements and directed and targeted ads ranging from everything from tooth picks to sex, it begs the question do they really want to catch these people. If they wanted to, the social media site could shut down every account that has the photos and pass the names of the people posting to the police simple and done. Would it be good for their bottom line to have the public know that they gave up some of their members to police? what I say to that is, if you have done nothing illegal you should have nothing to worry about.

Social media sites hide behind their “terms of use policies” as though they were the Holy Gail, and that it will protect them from all evil. Well when a company becomes so big it that it has the ability to create society and to change it, it should also share in the responsibility to protect it and not just wash its hands when an evil and vial deed is done.