14 June 2024, Kim Harrisberg, Context
Digital activists want to monitor who is behind all the post-vote propaganda, but say they are hampered by high costs and high-walled platforms: the sort of challenges their Western counterparts rarely face.
“It’s like we are fighting against it (disinformation) with our hands tied behind our back,” said William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), a South African news and human rights watchdog.
MMA’s disinformation reporting website Real411, has experienced roughly a six-fold increase in complaints during the election period, Bird said.
If social media propaganda is to be believed, Trump has endorsed former president Jacob Zuma’s new party while the leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, was in cahoots with the CIA to steal the elections.