companies use people’s personal data, track their behavior, and show them content made to trick or influence them without them even knowing.
Scott uses ideas from philosopher Isaiah Berlin to explain this better. Berlin talks about two kinds of freedom: one is positive freedom, which means becoming your best self by making thoughtful choices. The other is negative freedom, which means not being forced or controlled by others. Scott says that when people are targeted with secret ads or fake information online, they lose both freedom. They cannot truly think for themselves because they’re being silently influenced behind the scenes.
Ubuntu ethics helps us understand why this is so harmful. Ubuntu teaches that we become ourselves through our relationships with others. We are not just separate individuals, we are all connected. Real freedom doesn’t come from being alone. It comes from being part of a caring, respectful community where everyone’s voice matters. When Facebook let companies like Cambridge Analytica secretly collect people’s data and target them with manipulative messages, it broke that trust. People weren’t treated as equals in a conversation. They were treated like targets in a hidden game.
Scott also discusses the importance of transparency or honesty. That idea fits with Ubuntu, which says that people deserve to be seen, heard, and respected. It’s through recognizing each other that we grow as humans. However, real recognition was impossible when Facebook allowed hidden ads and secret influence campaigns. Users did not know what others were seeing, and the content they got was often designed to keep them in echo chambers, separated from other views.
By creating a space where people were secretly influenced and divided, Facebook damaged the moral community that democracy depends on. Ubuntu teaches that dignity and freedom come from being part of something bigger than ourselves, a community where we all matter. Facebook’s actions made that harder to achieve.
Why Ubuntu Ethics Helps Us Understand Facebook’s Responsibility
In many Western ways of thinking, people are often seen as separate individuals who each have their rights and choices. However, Ubuntu, an African philosophy, sees people differently. Ubuntu teaches that we are all connected. We do not become fully human on our own but through our relationships with others. Real freedom does not come from being independent. It comes from caring for and being cared for by the people around us.
That is why Ubuntu gives us a powerful way to think about what Facebook did during the 2016 election. Facebook’s biggest failure was not just about technology or mistakes. The real problem was that the platform became a place where people stopped seeing each other as fellow citizens. Instead, Facebook’s system showed people different information based on their beliefs, creating “bubbles” where they only saw what they already agreed with. Many voices, especially from minority communities, were ignored or twisted. Instead of building unity, Facebook helped spread division.
Ubuntu says that when harm is done to one part of a community, the whole community suffers. For example, when African American voters were secretly targeted with messages telling them not to vote, that did not just hurt one group. It hurt the fairness of the whole election. When immigrants were attacked through fake memes and lies, it did not just spread hate, it tore at the shared respect that democracy needs to survive.
Facebook did not just look the other way; it benefited. The company made money from likes, shares, and clicks, even when the content was harmful. It did not do enough to stop the damage, making it responsible for the effects, not just the actions.
Understanding Information Warfare Through Ubuntu
What makes this issue so serious is how information warfare works today. It is not about bombs or guns. It is about using information to break people apart quietly. Instead of using force, these strategies use lies, confusion, and fear to make people stop trusting each other.
Ubuntu helps us see the full impact of this. It is not just that people were misled; it’s that their relationships were harmed. When Facebook allowed its design to help spread fake news, hateful messages, and conspiracy theories, it did not just confuse people. It made them see others as enemies instead of neighbors. It replaced the community with suspicion.
Even though Facebook did not create the harmful content itself, it built the system that allowed it to spread. It gave people the tools, the space, and the blindfolds, and they chose not to step in. That still makes Facebook morally responsible.
Conclusion: Who Is Responsible—and What Needs to Change
In this paper, we have seen that Facebook did take part in information warfare by helping to divide and mislead people during the 2016 election. Through the lens of Ubuntu ethics, it becomes clear that Facebook bears moral responsibility for the harm done to democratic values and community connections. The way Facebook was built and its leaders’ choices allowed false information to spread and damaged how people saw and treated one another.
Some people argue that Facebook is just a tool and should not be blamed for how it’s used. But Ubuntu shows us that responsibility isn’t just about what you do; it’s about the part you play in a system. Facebook helped create the conditions for large-scale manipulation, which means it shares in the blame.
Others may say regulating Facebook would hurt free speech or slow innovation. But Ubuntu teaches that real freedom only exists in healthy, caring communities. If a platform breaks trust and pushes people apart, then it’s not helping us be free; it’s making us more alone.
What we need now is not just better technology. We need better values. We need platforms judged not just by their number of users but by how well they help us connect, understand, and respect each other. As Ubuntu reminds us, “None of us is free until all of us are free.” Freedom can only exist when it’s built together in honesty, respect, and community.
References:
Madrigal, A. C. (2017, October 12). What Facebook did to American democracy. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/
Prier, J. (2017). Commanding the trend: Social media as information warfare. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 11(4), 50–85.
Scott, K. (2018). A Second Amendment for cyber? Possession, prohibition and personal liberty for the information age. In J. A. Black & D. V. Jackson (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (pp. 447–452). Academic Conferences and Publishing International.
Ubuntu philosophy. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ubuntu-philosophy
Metz, T. (2011). Ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in South Africa. African Human Rights Law Journal, 11(2), 532–559.