If you look at my previous post, it was about my response to a blog post likening the US government to a company. Now in this post, I will again liken the US government to a company and say that this time they have violated its CSR through its spying on other countries as revealed by Mr. Edward Snowden.

Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as “The corporate belief

that a company needs to be responsible for its actions – socially, ethically, and environmentally.” The spying of the US government has specifically violated the “socially” and “ethically” part. According to an article on the guardian, “the NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract…we can no longer trust them to be ethical internet stewards.” This is even more shocking because the US spied even on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has had her phone tapped by the NSA. Allies implies trusting each other, and spying on each other isnt exactly “trust”. Being one of the leading countries of the world today, the US (as well as the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand aka “The Five Eyes”) has a big responsibility to use its power wisely. These countries have a corporate social responsibility to our society and to the world  and they must abide by it. They cannot use their power to violate people’s rights to privacy and personal security, otherwise these countries are as wrong and illegitimate as the “regimes” they are criticizing (Russia, China, Iran, Syria etc.). I hope that the USA and the rest of the “Five Eyes” will use this scandal as an opportunity to change and be more honest, ethical, and practice CSR. Lastly, I call for Mr. Edward Snowden to be pardoned as he only said the truth and nothing else but the truth. People shouldn’t be punished for telling the truth especially in matters like these.

Source:

Definition of CSR- http://ombo.berkeley.edu/name/questions/glossary

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/government-betrayed-internet-nsa-spying

http://news.yahoo.com/european-spy-services-shared-phone-data-us-nsa-185616676.html