Abstract
This article hinges on empirical qualitative data gathered from an illustrative sample to
determine perceptions on enforcing ethics on social media from people who acted as citizen
journalists during South Africa’s 2015 xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. The April 2015
attacks were mediated through user-driven social media platforms such as WhatsApp, where
truthful and untruthful information on xenophobia was disseminated to warn targeted recipients
of impending attacks to allow them to take precautionary measures. While these messages
proliferated valid and verified information there were cases where false information was
spread, causing undue panic in some sectors of the immigrant society especially. This study
therefore uses moral panics and citizen journalism concepts to explore the understanding of
ethical implications in mediating the attacks from the perspective of citizen journalism. In the
end, the argument is made that professional journalism ethics, according to the respondents in
this study, need not apply to social media. Instead, the study concludes, there is a possibility of
peer-to-peer monitoring and reprisals that may work as control measures in social media and
citizen journalism, especially in times of crisis.