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Abstract

Cyberbullying has arisen as a prevalent and worrying issue in the digital age, substantially influencing the well-being and mental health of social media users. Previous studies have identified several factors and theories of cyberbullying. Still more in-depth research is required to understand the key factors influencing cyberbullying intention in social media. This study aims to identify the factors influencing cyberbullying intention in social media and examine the moderating effect of fake accounts on cyberbullying intention. An extensive literature review has been conducted to examine the gaps in existing studies on cyberbullying intention. As a result, this study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a basis of the proposed Cyber- bully Intention Model (CIM), with the addition of Anonymity and Fake Ac- count, respectively, as external exogenous and moderating variables. This study is conducted based on a quantitative survey of 273 social media users. It assessed respondents' experiences with cyberbullying by considering various perceptions of behavioral control, subjective norms, attitudes, anonymity, fake accounts, and their intentions toward committing cyberbullying on social media platforms. Data was analyzed using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4 software. The results reveal that Attitude (p= 0.008) and Subjective Norms (p= 0.014) are key factors in Cyberbully Intention. On the other hand, Fake Account is seen as having a medium moderating effect on the relationship between Perceived Behavioral Control and Cyberbully Intention (p= 0.046). Fake Account also moderate the relationship between Anonymity and Cyberbully Intention (p= 0.041). The output from this study is multi-faceted and holds implications for various stakeholders, including social media platforms, educational institutions, policymakers, organizations, and individuals. The theoretical contribution of this study by introducing the concept of fake accounts as medium effect moderating anonymity to become a cyberbully intention. The findings of this study give implications to digital platform administrators and policy makers who aim to curb cyberbullying incidents. Educating users about the possible con- sequences of leveraging fake accounts for malicious purposes can contribute to fostering more responsible and empathetic digital interactions.

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