Distinguish ethical vs illegal?

. . .

unethical

contrary to a system/consensus of acceptable behavior

illegal

merits social sanctions on condemned behavior by government (e.g., fines or jail)

Research Ethics

Belmont principles

• respect for persons (informed consent)
  • information
  • comprehension
  • voluntariness
• beneficence
  • maximize benefits
  • minimize harm
• justice
  • benefits and harms distributed fairly

IRBs often focus on:

• informed consent
• risks vs benefit assessment
• selection of research subjects

Summary

• students interviewed people in person or via phone
  • couldn’t do online interviews
• went through formal IRB review
• students used consent forms, no children
• no logging of ephemeral conversations
• students should identify themselves clearly
• students disguised site name and even pseudonyms
• results could be published

Questions

• what is public?
  • pseudonym of a public blog author?
  • of a Facebook user?
  • of a public figure on Twitter?
• should one quote or paraphrase online sources?
• what happens if you freak out a subject?
• what happens if you become the target of harassment?

No formal interviews nor IRB review, but we should be sensitive to the issues.

Social breaching

• private/confidential spaces
• report is for instructor/class only, not public or published
• you can identify the site in your report
• because you will be having personal interactions
  • you may refrain from explaining what your are doing until your experiment is concluded
  • in your report you may quote others if you obtain their permission; otherwise use paraphrasing
  • [do not mention anyone by name, if you wish to speak of someone, use a pseudonym][research participants]
  • you can identify relations (e.g., friend or sister)

Wikipedia reflection

• public space
• report is public; consequently, be careful!
• the site (WP) will be obvious
• you might have personal interactions
  • you may cite other Wikipedians by WP name; they are likely to see what you write
• you are identified as a student in a course
• keep to WP policies and guidelines

ex. Apply Belmont

Apply the Belmont principles to the Facebook case (Grohol 2014).

1. Did they get IRB approval?
2. Did they follow the Belmont principles
   • respect for persons (informed consent)
   • beneficence
   • justice
3. Does the Common Rule apply to private companies?
4. Was Facebook’s research unethical? Should it be illegal?

“Disguising Reddit sources and the efficacy of ethical research”

“Spinning Words As Disguise: Shady Services For Ethical Research?””

“Even pseudonyms and throwaways delete their Reddit posts”

What is an API?

Twitter (2023-Feb)

Twitter’s most affordable API tier, at $100 a month, would only allow third parties to collect 10,000 per month. That’s just 0.3 percent of what they previously had free access to in a single day … its “outrageously expensive” enterprise tier … wasn’t enough to conduct some ambitious studies or maintain important tools. (Calma 2023)

• Hurt 3rd party apps
• Hurt researchers

Reddit (2023-May)

• Company shut off free API access, claiming
  • it was costly and had users’ privacy concerns in mind.
  • Critics suspected Reddit was worried about ads, AI, and, IPO.
• Killed Apollo (would’ve had to pay $20M/y) and other 3rd-party apps
• Also killed pushshift and http://redditsearch.io/ (Stuck_In_the_Matrix 2023)
• Prompted “black out” and NSFW proliferation
• Followed by “The Great Mod Purge” (Harding 2023)

Questions for researchers

Privacy: What rights and power should people hold over their participation in independent research, and what kind of data sharing is justifiable between researchers?

Ethics: what relationship and obligations should independent researchers have with the people whose data we are studying? What forces will ensure that researchers face consequences for abusing their power? (LukitoMatiasGilbert 2023)

Gatekeeping: who should be allowed to carry out independent research?

Our interviews revealed four key tactics: centering the human, increasing agency and awareness, protecting data, and being proactive. (LukitoMatiasGilbert 2023)

Mnemonic for Belmont principles?

. . .

gotta respect the benefits of being in the justice league

just B respectful

For each of the Belmont principles:

1. Define each in your own words, and
2. give a hypothetical example of a online researcher violating the principle. ▶