Scapegoating and disinformation about the fire spread rapidly. Various politicians blamed illegal immigrants and civil society organisations who had no involvement whatsoever with the building. Read full article
A subscription-based service formerly known as BluTwittere, and now called X Premium, was introduced to allow anyone, not just celebrities and influencers, to have a verified account at a cost of R145 a month. Read full article
Johannesburg – In a new report, the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) found that the online conversations using the hashtags #Xenophobia, #PatrioticSpace, #VoetsekANC, and #PutSouthAfricaFirst were likely artificially manipulated. Read full article
The Centre for Analytics & Behavioural Change (CABC) & the Enhancing Accountability Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) present key findings from research conducted around online conversations about corruption in South Africa. View the webinar
Camaren Peter reflects on the cases on two women – Lauren Dickason and Bongeko Buso – and how the two are products of a historically and currently unspeakably unequal system, occupying different ends of the spectrum. In this guest essay he considers how a ‘tale of two countries’ characterises the South African societal psyche and …
Elon Musk’s posts about a ‘white genocide’ and claims that white farmers are killed every day have no basis and should be considered misinformation. Read full artical
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba emphasises complex socio-economic challenges and criticises corruption, mismanagement, and the breakdown in border policing. Read full artical
It was a week in which academics wrote poems with ChatGPT and learned computational methods to collect data from thousands of online news sites. Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS) hosted the DigiMethods 2023 event from 19 to 24 June 2023. Academic staff and postgraduate students came from as far as Uganda …
Camo-clad men attacked a Zimbabwean delivery man and threatened Pakistani shops in Kempton Park over the weekend. Read full artical
Narratives that conflate xenophobic sentiments with patriotism on social media could be used by political parties ahead of next year’s elections as a tool to win support. Read full story here.