Self-regulating Behavior in Social Media Use Among Malaysian Muslim Consumers

The era of COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed the increasing trend of social media use. Such trend has also increased the vulnerability of social media to various abusive behavior among consumers while accessing, consuming, and sharing the content. While present legislation and code of practices mainly regulate industry players, personal communication is largely governed by consumers’ self-regulation mechanism. It is also believed that mechanisms of self-regulating might be able to solve some major social concerns since other approaches do not appear to be very successful. Since the current awareness and conformance of regulations and ethical practices among consumers at large are still not fully understood, therefore, this study attempts to explore the current state of awareness of ethical codes including self-regulating mechanisms practiced by public, especially among Muslim consumers in Malaysia. Using the qualitative research approach, the results of the study will contribute to further improvement in the current regulation and code of practices imposed by the government to ensure better compliance and more responsible use of social media among the public. The outcome of the study may also benefit the social media providers to work in conjunction with consumer groups, policymakers, educators, and individuals particularly parents to ensure safe consumption of social media.