Political identity and social media ethics in nowadays America
The article analyzes the ethics of social networks and its relationship with political identity. Two dimensions of the ethics of social networks are identified - the ethics of users and the ethics of platform owners. Using the example of political communication and the actions of social networks during the US protests in 2020, the transition from a procedural ethics based on ensuring freedom of speech and the equivalence of all types of identity to an ethics of protecting oppressed classes and groups is considered. The trends of different ethical assessments and reactions of users and owners of social networks in the same situations in the same political context, arbitrary denial of equal access to political communication to users and politicians due to disapproval of their political identity are revealed. Such ethics are not universal, are applied selectively and can damage the democratic foundations of any society, especially in the context of the growing unlimited power of the owners of communication platforms.