07 September 2020, Daily Maverick, William Bird and Thandi Smith
Through the Real411 platform, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has been tracking disinformation trends on digital platforms since the end of March 2020. Using the Real411 platform we have analysed disinformation trends which have largely focused on Covid-19.
The past week was officially the start of spring in South Africa. Sadly, the complaints submitted, while fresh, were anything but new and innovative. We have commented previously on the motivations of those who seek to spread disinformation and we have also looked at how disinformation isn’t necessarily home-grown but copied, usually from the US. This week is notable for two rehashed complaints, one about masks, (726) and the other about Covid-19 being a hoax (728).