TikTok Set for Explosive Growth in South Africa, says Expert
Sourced from Cosmico South Africa’s largest annual study of social media trends has revealed that Facebook remains the social platform of choice for marketing – but TikTok is rising fast among both brands and consumers. According to the 2020 edition of the SA Social Media Landscape, released this week by World Wide Worx and Ornico, almost a third of major brands intend to become active on TikTok, which is also the fastest growing social media platform among consumers. Fewer than 20% of brands have used it in the past year, but none believe they are doing so very effectively. These numbers are likely to change significantly during 2020. It is estimated that around 6-million South Africans are already using the platform. Nine out of ten major brands – just more than 89% – indicated they were...
Ice Cube Posting Anti-Semitic and Russian Propaganda on Twitter
Since the murder of George Floyd spurred a nationwide uprising of police brutality protests, Ice Cube’s music, specifically N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police”, has felt extremely on-point. His tweets, on the other hand, have not: the veteran rapper and actor has been uploading images promoting anti-Semitic and Russian propaganda. On June 6th, Ice Cube tweeted an image of a mural that was removed from a wall in London’s East End for being anti-Semitic. The picture features a handful of caricatured Jewish businessmen playing a game of Monopoly on top of a table that sits on the backs of black men. The image itself contains the words, “All we have to do is stand up and their little game is over.” Earlier today, he shared a picture of a black cube in the center of the Jewish Star of David. The pu...
Sharing A Defamatory WhatsApp or Facebook Post Could Get You Sued or Fired in SA – Legal Experts
The social media sphere has quickly become a new stage to be navigated carefully in these modern times. Often filled with deepening negativity and debacles that are dreadfully embarrassing for those involved – like the fallout over a Miss South Africa candidate and her history of crude tweets. Now, lawyers at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) have warned South Africans that sharing defamatory posts can mean serious trouble. “It is important to understand that South African law considers repeating or sharing defamatory content as sufficient to constitute ‘publication’ and, thus, defamation in its own right, even if the repeater or sharer was not the author of the original defamatory post,” Timothy Smit, director, and Elizabeth Sonnekus, an associate in the firm’s dispute resolution practice...
Twitter Clarifies Policies on Misinformation After Labelling Trump’s Tweets
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Twitter has taken to social media to set the record straight regarding the platform’s new policies on misinformation. In a series of Tweets, Twitter says that it’s is not focused on flagging or labelling every piece of misinformation as it’s rather tackling the content with “the highest potential for harm”. This is, according to the company, because people have insisted that the platform “shouldn’t determine the truthfulness of tweets,” but rather “provide context to help people make up their own minds in cases where the substance of a tweet is disputed.” We are NOT attempting to address all misinformation. Instead, we prioritize based on the highest potential for harm, focusing on manipulated media, civic integrity, and COVID-19. Likelihood, se...
Marcus Rashford reacts to Odion Ighalo’s contract extension
English striker Marcus Rashford has congratulations Odion Ighalo following his contract extension with Manchester United. Ighalo was signed on loan from Shanghai Shenhua back in January after Rashford sustained an injury that ruled him out of action for three months. The six-month loan initially expired on May 31, but United decided to retain the services of the former Super Eagles striker for another six months and he now remains at Old Trafford until January 2021. Rashford who couldn’t hide his excitement after Manchester United announced the new agreement on their website took to his social media handle to congratulate his teammate. “Congrats @ighalojude 👏🏾♥️” Rashford wrote on Twitter. Ighalo who has scored four goals in eight matches for the club will be ...
FCT confirms 14 new cases of coronavirus, one death
The Federal Capital Territory has confirmed that 14 new cases of coronavirus disease have been recorded in Abuja. The FCTA made the confirmation in a tweet via its Twitter account on Tuesday. According to the Administration, one new coronavirus death was also recorded in the territory, with 18 patients discharged after showing full recovery from the viral infection. The tweet reads “14 NEW CASES, 18 DISCHARGED, 1 DEATH IN THE FCT. “Summary of COVID19 in the FCT as of June 1, 2020. “Total number of confirmed cases: 674. “Total number of active cases: 454. “A total number of 200 patients have been discharged with 20 deaths recorded. “Residents are urged to take preventive measures seriously and stay safe.” Meanwhile, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control on Monday announced 416 new cases of...
Nigerian government receives coaches, locomotives for Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna railways
The Federal Government on Monday announced that it had received some coaches and locomotives to be deployed on key rail lines in Nigeria. It said the coaches were the last set which were ordered in March. It was also gathered that the locomotives and coaches, which arrived Nigeria from China, would be deployed once operations begin. The government disclosed this via a tweet by the Nigerian Railway Corporation through its official Twitter handle, which was also confirmed to our correspondent by the NRC’s spokesperson, Yakub Mahmood. The corporation said, “Some days ago, Nigeria took delivery of the last dozens of train coaches ordered in the month of March. “The coaches have been transported to Nigerian train base in Papalanto, Ogun State and will be used on the Lagos-Ibadan railway when op...
President Buhari meets Governor Obaseki at Villa
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Personal Assistant on New Media to the President, Bashir Ahmad, announced this via his Twitter handle. He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari meets with Governor of Edo State, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki this afternoon, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.” Newsmen reports that eight governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, on Sunday, held a meeting with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, at the State House Marina, Lagos State to make a case for Obaseki. It was gathered that the governors were at the closed-door meeting to seek Tinubu’s intervention in the search for a truce in the political conflict between Obaseki and h...
Man-Child Donald Trump Reacts BIGLY By Signing “Useless” Excutive Order That Targets Social Media
Source: Pool / Getty Donald Trump is not here for being fact-checked when he puts out false or misleading information. Yesterday (May.28), the man-child, Donald Trump, reacted BIGLY to Twitter fact-checking his fugazi tweets that inaccurately stated “widespread fraud” takes place with mail-in voting. Doing what he does best, he signed an executive order that put tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google as well as the internet law that gives them legal immunity from the content users may share on their platforms. We also want to point out Trump’s response to Twitter was much faster than his response to battling COVID-19. Anyway, at the White House, in the Oval Office where he does nothing, Trump said, “We’re fed up with it,” before he signed the executive order. He also added: “Tha...
Twitter Flags Trump Tweet for Glorifying Violence
Twitter has taken the unprecedented step of flagging a tweet from Donald Trump, saying it violated the platform’s rules against glorifying violence. Early Friday morning, as protests boiled over in Minneapolis over the murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by police, Trump sent out an especially incendiary tweet threatening violence against protestors. “These thugs are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” Trump tweeted. Just spoke to [Minnesota] Governor Tim Waltz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the lotting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Twitter subsequently added a warning label to Trump’s tweet, which prevented users from viewing it without first reading a brief ...
The 1975’s Matty Healy Leaves Twitter After Taking Heat for George Floyd Tweet
In an era where hardline opinions and virtue signaling bash against each other constantly on social media, there really is no winning. Take, for example, the discourse surrounding George Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed by a police officer pressing a knee into his neck while he was handcuffed. Just yesterday, John Boyega took heat for saying, “I really fucking hate racists” in the wake of the tragedy. Today, The 1975’s Matty Healy has left Twitter after receiving backlash for including his own music in an expression of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Healy sent out a message that read, “If you truly believe that ‘ALL LIVES MATTER’ you need to stop facilitating the end of black ones.” Seems enough like an ally, right? The issue was that he tagged on The 1975’s video for one of...
Trump Threatens Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms After Being Fact-Checked
Sourced from Politico. US President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate or even “close down” social media platforms in a series of tweets over the last day on Twitter. This comes after Twitter added a fact-check label to some of his posts. The labels entail that particular tweets contained misleading information. The president (ironically) tweeted that republicans feel that social media platforms such as Twitter are trying to censor their political views. ….happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020 He then warned, “Big action [is]...
