Internet Ethics: Voices Amplified
Irina Raicu is the director of the Internet Ethics program (@IEthics) at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Views are her own.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. You can click on a link and listen to the voices of Bergen-Belsen survivors singing Hatikva (the song that would later become the national anthem of Israel), recorded by the BBC while those singing were still in the death camp.
It’s a powerful reminder of many things, including the fact that the internet allows us to hear, remember, and spread those voices. But it also allows us to hear and spread the kind of messages that helped pave the way to the Holocaust. The internet has enabled both mass memorialization and massacres. The ethics of its design, use, and regulation are important topics that will have to be continuously reassessed.
Photo: "Bergen Belsen Memorial" by Chripps, cropped, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0