4 ms·

Tell HN: Violent Racial Incitement on Whatsapp and Twitter

2 points by niolon 7y ago

South Africa is, in many ways a racial powder keg that has been the victim of a well-documented organised manipulation to create racial animosity using Twitter. A poorly educated populace makes it prone to fake news. A man of Indian descent may have been framed ( https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/lindsay-saker-service-manager-allegedly-framed-in-k-word-and-black-monkeys-whatsapp-20190531 ) using racially derogatory terms against black people in a WhatsApp message. After the wrong person (an IT consultant) was initially identified, the "correct" person was found. Both men have had their personal information widely shared, on Twitter by accounts associated with the militant Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), along with threats to "just have a talk". A provincial government minister, Panyaza Lesufi also got involved. The man's personal information is on Twitter currently. Searching for his name on Facebook doesn't bring up anything. WhatsApp is encrypted of course. Twitter needs to create a rapid response team to deal with this sort of issue...this man faces the real threat of being killed. If someone from Twitter and WhatsApp reads this, please deal with the issue.

onyva 7y ago
“poorly educated populace” applies to most people responding irrationally to incitement on social media, not just in South Africa. Yet I somehow don’t remember seeing this stated when white supremacy and other hate crimes are committed by neo-nazis inviting violence, I.e. Paul Nehlen... this is when we’re somehow asked to consider the limits of free speech, not his IQ.
- niolon 7y ago
  "Poorly educated populace" is a statement of fact, not a racial insinuation, as is seemingly being implied. South Africa has an awful education system, coming off a low base under apartheid. Its populace faces the problems of poor literacy (and associated critical thinking skills), as well as the general issues that the rest of the world faces with social media. Until cellphone network MTN killed its free data for Twitter offering, it was a hotbed of manipulation for precisely that reason. The difference between social media disinformation empowering white supremacists in the west, and misinformation in third world countries, is the risk of mob violence in the third world.

2 points by niolon 7y ago

onyva 7y ago

“poorly educated populace” applies to most people responding irrationally to incitement on social media, not just in South Africa. Yet I somehow don’t remember seeing this stated when white supremacy and other hate crimes are committed by neo-nazis inviting violence, I.e. Paul Nehlen... this is when we’re somehow asked to consider the limits of free speech, not his IQ.

niolon 7y ago
"Poorly educated populace" is a statement of fact, not a racial insinuation, as is seemingly being implied. South Africa has an awful education system, coming off a low base under apartheid. Its populace faces the problems of poor literacy (and associated critical thinking skills), as well as the general issues that the rest of the world faces with social media. Until cellphone network MTN killed its free data for Twitter offering, it was a hotbed of manipulation for precisely that reason. The difference between social media disinformation empowering white supremacists in the west, and misinformation in third world countries, is the risk of mob violence in the third world.