This periodic report is the second of a series of biweekly reports that will track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 23 June and 10 July 2022. The main themes identified over the period include increasing growth in negative sentiment towards President Cyril...
This regular report for the month of June 2022 assesses conversations about foreign nationals on South African social media. Operation Dudula, a xenophobic campaign whose reach is growing continues to dominate the conversation. Aside from being an online campaign that focuses on influencing policy and implementation decisions, Operation Dudula also engages in paramilitary activities. This...
This periodic report is the first of a series of biweekly reports that will track and summarise the key current narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation. This report’s date range is between 8 June and 22 June 2022. The main themes identified over the period include youth unemployment dissatisfaction which was highlighted on Youth...
This report summarises all current and former narratives within South Africa’s online democracy conversation between January and May 2022. Five main focus areas were tracked within the broader democracy conversation. These include the judiciary and democratic institutions; the constitution; the upcoming ANC elective conference in December 2022; the RET network and corruption. The content sources...
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In the first half of 2022, the extent of xenophobic content related to South Africa on social media increased. The most prominent hashtag in the conversation, #OperationDudula, is characterized by a negative sentiment directed toward foreigners. It appears that this may be a coordinated influence operation. On Nimmo’s breakout scale for measuring the impact of...
The Constitution protects fundamentals adequately, but no country can legislate human decency, writes Praveen Naidoo. Read full article
The collapse of the social compact and deterioration of society into fragmented and polarised groups underpins the decline of democracy, writes Camaren Peter. Read full article
Social media has undoubtedly become society’s primary source of entertainment, communication, and information. Monthly active Facebook users in Afrika total 139 million, while Twitter records Afrikan monthly users at 50 million.The ease of use of social media has substantially decreased the cost of producing news and information. Small to medium players with efficient tools are...
Social media platforms can be used to share critically important information about disaster management. Read full article
