VISION & MISSION
NETIQUETTE IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is a technological marvel and a powerful tool for communicating with one another. Sadly, the platform has been taken for granted; netizens frequently abuse their freedom of speech by hurting the feelings of others through postings of negative comments, criticisms and curses to other social media users. Among the examples that we can see, alarming both the nation and international region are cases such as cultural differences in languages that occurred between Malaysian netizens and famous singer, Dua Lipa in Twitter (Katrina, 2018), the defending situation of the Malaysian national athletes in the Paralympic Tokyo 2020 (Faizal & Amir, 2021) and more. According to Saodah (2014), Malaysian youth tend to be involved in more negative-oriented information activities than foreigners. Hence, this campaign intends to create awareness on the right etiquette to ensure that Malaysian youth are well-equipped with the do’s and don’ts when communicating online.
According to Scheuermann and Taylor, (1997), netiquette is formed from the combination of “network” and “etiquette” that portrays “etiquette of the network”. To put it in simpler form, netiquette consists of the do’s and don'ts in social media platforms, as a guideline for us to respect the feelings, emotions and cultural practice of other social media users, and to be responsible for all the comments and posts uploaded, locally and internationally. Good usage of netiquette would increase the quality of online communications and strengthen the reputation of the user (Hammond & Moseley, 2018) to reduce negative issues regarding etiquette on social media in the current society. Therefore, NETHICS hope to make aware of the consequences of uploading negative comments, fake news and unethical reporting whilst enlightening on the importance of having a good netiquette on social media platforms.
CYBER HARASSMENT
Based on The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 2020, Malaysia ranks second place in Asia for cyberbullying among youth, where a total of 3 out of 10 young Malaysians are victims of cyberbullying (The Sun Daily, 2019) Malaysia Computer Emergency and Response Team (MyCERT), also recorded more than 100 cyber harassment cases including fake profile, cyber extortion, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, racial and sexual issues occurring in social media annually (Roziah et al., 2018). In other words, backlash and cyberattacks towards a particular individual can easily happen due to specific statements and comments in social media, both local and international context. As an after-effect, self-doubts, mental trauma and suicide ideation become very real issues, all caused by the abusive action and cyber victimization among youth (Quintana-Orts et al., 2022). Thus, this campaign pushes to educate the Malaysian youth about the negative impact on issues regarding cyber harassment in social media due to the lack of etiquette and in turn hopes to reduce the cases revolving around the matter.
PERSONAL BRANDING
In the world of digitisation today, society is fully utilising online platforms whether for their studies, work, entertainment or even for shopping. As people are using social media in their daily activities, it has become a norm for them to disclose their personal information online including the sharing of their current location, contact details, intimate pictures and more (Czodli, 2016). Due to this, we are leaving digital traces behind that are known as digital footprints (Weaver & Gahegan, 2007). According to Tengku Siti Meriam et al. (2019), many young Malaysians are unaware that the digital footprints that they leave can affect their online presence or brand for their future career opportunities. To be specific, some digital footprints can lead to the construction of negative digital “proles” for a certain individual.
These “profiles'' can affect a person's identity or brand. Johnson (2017) referred to personal branding as the creation of content that has more professional and attractive storytelling to highlight a person’s expertise, skills and experiences for others to see. What this highlights is that, an individual needs to ensure what they post online can create a positive image and reputation for themselves, as a way to self-promote in achieving their career goals (Peters, 1997). This is considered crucial as hiring managers and employers are now utilising social media sites as part of their cyber vetting practice - a practice where they look into the social media content to obtain relevant information about their job applicants in making their hiring decisions (Gruzd et al., 2020; Johnson, 2017). To ensure that Malaysian youths keep a presentable social identity, NETHICS would provide suggestions to build the right persona online and to keep track of their digital footprint as well as personal information, either in their personal or professional social media accounts.