TV presenter Pabi Moloi’s ordeal exemplifies the broader failure of social media platforms, including Facebook, to adequately regulate the spread of misleading and harmful content. Read full article
Daily Maverick: Viral lies, real consequences — the price of Facebook’s inaction Read More »
We limped out of the pandemic, shell-shocked and bamboozled, into a world that is overwhelming us with the ferocious velocity and volume of change that unfolds with every minute and hour of the present. We can be forgiven for getting lost in the noise of it all. Read full article
On Monday, 31 October, at 8.30am, the 18th African Investigative Journalism Conference kicked off in Johannesburg and will run until Wednesday, 2 November. Read more.
The Phala Phala saga has remained prominent on social media for several months. The Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change analysed the content and patterns which reveal that powerful factional agendas are active online. Read full story here.
Online narratives that surfaced following the death of Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi in Diepsloot appear to have been manipulated to sow discord between South Africans and resident foreign nationals. Read full article
ONLINE NARRATIVES: Posts about the death of Elvis Nyathi stoke the flames of xenophobia Read More »
Over several years, one hashtag has become prominent on social media for rallying behind a campaign calling on government and the private sector to prioritise local jobs for South Africans over foreign nationals, while blaming immigrants for crime, among other social issues. Read full article
Law enforcement’s crackdown on Zamaswazi Majozi – believed to be the mastermind behind the Sphithiphithi Evaluator account – could be a drop in the ocean for a coordinated network harbouring plans of using social media, misinformation and disinformation to divide the country. Read full article
THE AFTERMATH : The evolution of social media influencer Sphithiphithi Evaluator Read More »
Jacob Zuma and his supporters have wrapped their campaign around one big misrepresentation, which they unashamedly put into the public discourse at every opportunity: That the former president has done nothing wrong and is being persecuted for political purposes. Tentacles of disinformation have been developed around the big lie to strangle the truth. Read
A network of inauthentic accounts is twisting policy for its misinformation machine. read full article
RET’s digital war of words: The fake online network hijacking the Twittersphere Read More »
From paintings by artists like Xolani Sivunda to communication campaigns launched by provincial health departments, the fight against Covid-19-related misinformation is being fought on many fronts. Spotlight surveyed some of these efforts and asked health and behaviour experts what does and does not work. Read full article
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