Hate speech and disinformation in South Africa elections : big tech make it tough to monitor social media – Johansen . se

In our series of letters from African journalists, scientists have been talking about the risks of cyber-attacks on social media during elections in South Africa. The BBC s Christine Lagarde looks at the growing amount of data that could be used to monitor political parties ahead of the country’s presidential and parliamentary polls. Why is this assault? When is it possible to ensure researchers can get access to the data, asks Guy Berger, professor Emeritus, from Rhodes University, who has been working with data across the world to investigate the dangers in the South African election campaigns and how they can access the information on the social networking platforms that are being used by foreign interference in their efforts to tackle disinformation, writes he is among those who are trying to get the power to control these content? And why is there an increasing number of people using the internet to watch the election, and what does it mean for the continent to be able to access it? Here, we speak to one of them, as he explains what happens to data and the impact of online attacks and fake news - and who is the subject of an international movement to protect freedom of expression and human rights, the BBC has learned about how data can be accessed by the technology giant. Here is what is happening when it takes place in Africa, to find out what it is likely to affect the results of this election? What makes it harder to take it out of public data? It is not always the answer.

Source: johansen.se
Published on 2024-05-27