Government Bans and Twitter Trends

One of the biggest responders to the Note 7 crisis was the government. In both South Korea and the United States, the government put bans and regulations on the Note 7. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and The Department of Transportation (DoT) banned Samsung’s Note 7 from all domestic airline flights, announcing an emergency order. During this crisis officials, such as the Transportation Secretory Anthony Foxx stated, “We recognize that banning these phones from airlines will inconvenience some passengers, but the safety of all those aboard an aircraft must take priority. We are taking this additional step because even one fire incident inflight poses a high risk of severe personal injury and puts many lives at risk.” The Department of Transportation also said that “If passengers attempt to travel by air with their Samsung Galaxy Note 7devices, the phones may be confiscated and passengers may face fines.” The United States government took this situation very seriously as it was a great danger to the safety of people. The South Korean government also has come up with a regulatory system that binds all phone manufacturers in the nation. This new system will be implemented to avoid any causalities. It will be incumbent on all Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to report any cases of any casualty immediately. In response to the Note 7 crisis, the government took a hard stand against Samsung for the safety of the people.

Another big responder to this crisis is the Samsung stakeholders. All of Samsung’s customers from loyal to new, will be affected by the poor decisions made by Samsung. It will take a lot of money to earn back their customers trust. Throughout the Note 7 crisis Samsung had to do a lot of PR work in trying to respond to their upset customers on social media, such as Twitter. Throughout the entire crisis, people were tweeting on Twitter about different incidents and occasions of explosions, making harsh remarks an comments about Samsung as a company, as well as making jokes bashing the Note 7 and Samsung as a whole. Meme’s began to storm the web as people began to make jokes of the Note 7. Some of these include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transparency and honestly are also one the of the biggest responses people had to the Note 7 crisis. Right from the beginning people said that Samsung should have been more honest about the problem. It should have been called a product recall- not an “exchange program.” That gives it a neutral, harmless sound. People were willing to forgive Samsung’s PR errors until the replacement phones began blowing up.

In a utilitarian point of view this case would seem unethical because of the consequences surrounding Samsung’s mistakes and the lack of awareness for all its stakeholders. A Kantian thinker would also be concerned about the entire process involved in the launch of the Note 7 as well. Samsung was so focused on trying to beat out Apple and the iPhone 7 that they were selfish in rushing such a product through testing and onto the shelves. Many were upset in the lack of responsibility Samsung took for the safety of people, and were upset that such a giant company would risk the safety of people to make a profit. That is where the biggest ethical dilemma stands for people. Why did Samsung force things along so quickly without thinking and endanger so many people?

Sources:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/10/14/us-government-bans-samsungs-recalled-note-7-from-us-airline-flights/

https://www.socpedia.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-aftermath-government-makes-stricter-regulations-for-exploding-phones

https://www.fastcompany.com/3064569/how-did-samsung-botch-the-galaxy-note-7-crisis-its-a-failure-of-leadership

http://businessethicscases.blogspot.com/2016/11/samsung-galaxy-note-7-explosion-2016.html

http://www.boredpanda.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-exploding-funny-reactions/