27 May 2024, William Bird and Thandi Smith, Daily Maverick
The Real411 teams have been kept busy with all manner of content, from claims about the elections being rigged to claims that people need to take their own black ink pens to vote, as the IEC will be using “evaporating ink”, suggesting that after marking the ballot, voters’ Xs will disappear, leaving a blank ballot for bad actors to then mark as they choose. It’s just wrong.
One of the key lessons learned from the 2019 national elections is that online harms often reinforce each other. Women journalists are frequently attacked online — harassed and threatened while disinformation about them is peddled. Less focus has been given to the issue of incitement on social media.