Fordham takes on Facebook at case competition

Announcements | Mar 10, 2017 | Matthew Stratford

Innovations sometimes bring unintentional ethical complications that only creative thought can solve.

That’s what the annual Business Ethics Case Competition demands.

This year, six Gabelli School teams took on the competition’s challenge: to select a current business ethics problem and develop a way to address it.

The topic chosen by the competition’s winning team is the “fake news” issue that is currently plaguing Facebook. Industry experts recently have called on Facebook to decide whether it considers itself a technology company or a media company—and, if the latter, how it plans to handle the editorial quandaries that can bring.

Elisabeth Lefer, Allison Pushkarsh, and Luke Rawski, all BS ’17, won the competition with their idea for Facebook to use its own user community as a resource. In their proposed model, users would hold one another accountable, reporting in when they see “news” that is incorrect or untrustworthy.

As the winner, the team received a cash prize and a chance to represent Fordham at the International Business Ethics Case Competition next month. That’s real news.