Information Ethics in Africa: - Africa Information Ethics Portal

Mutula, S.M. (2013). Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society: Implications for Africa. In Information Ethics in Africa:Cross-cutting Themes. Pretoria: ACEIE, 29-42.Chapter FourEthical Dimension of the Information Society: Implications for AfricaStephen M. MutulaSchool of Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA1. IntroductionInformation Ethics (IE) concerns the responsible use of Information and Communication Technologies(ICTs) in the Information Society as enunciated by the World Summit of Information Society ActionLine C10 (WSIS, 2005). The Internet, social media, computers and associated applications, such ase-Government and social networking, are having a tremendous impact on society. The laggardtechnological adoption behaviour that has characterised Africa and its people for many years isgradually being overcome in the wake of new technologies. New information and communicationtechnologies have quickly gained acceptance and use in education, research, business, government,politics, professional practice and in the general society, which raises several ethical issues such as:protection of users’ rights; user privacy guarantees; methods of enforcing compliance with thepolicies; user compensation when rights are violated; sanctions for errant users; verification of thecredibility of information uploaded by users; methods of conflict resolutions; roles and responsibilitiesof users; dealing with cybercrime; user training; dealing with intellectual property rights; guardingservers against invasion and more. In Africa, cultural practices form part of the daily norms of thepeople and, consequently, the ethical issues concerned with the use of new technologies can neverbe over emphasised. In addition, Africa is endowed with people of diverse and heterogeneous norms,cultures, languages, religions, and governance systems that answer to different ethical and moralinterpretations. This environment has created increased concerns about the moral and ethicalimplications for society, especially with regard to people’s legitimate rights. This chapter provides anattempt to address the responsible use of ICTs in the Information Society.Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, and Meyer (2010) state that ethics is not about somebody’sfeelings, one’s religious beliefs, or doing what the law requires, or the standards of behaviour oursociety accepts. Instead, ethics refers to wellfounded standards of right and wrong that prescribe whathumans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specificvirtues. In this regard, ethics implies those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrainfrom rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. In addition, ethical standards support virtuesof honesty, compassion, and loyalty; and the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the rightto privacy. Fallis (2007) explains that the concept of ethics means distinguishing right actions fromwrong actions based on the premise that [right actions] have better outcomes. However, Fallis isquick to point out that there are ethical duties that human beings must obey, regardless of theoutcomes. The right thing to do is determined by the rights that human beings have, such as theuniversal human rights or the commonly held value system of persons, despite different moral orcultural backgrounds and inclinations. Carbo (2007) asserts that ethical conduct dictates thatindividuals should be treated with love, affection, kindness, gentleness, generosity of spirit, and warmheartedness.While ethics is a concept that has come of age, Information Ethics is fairly new in literature,having gained prominence after the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005,respectively, as articulated in Action Line C10 of the Plan of Action (WSIS, 2005).Page 29