Social media – “Well that escalated quickly …”
'Fake news' has led to the death of at least one person in KwaMashu.
Roodepoort was not spared this past week when wrong information, or fake news, as it is in vogue to call it caused panic in the community.
Concerned parents were upset when they felt the principal of Laerskool Generaal De La Rey did not respond correctly when learners said there were ‘men with guns’ on the school property. He later explained that the young learners saw the armed members of the school’s security company and thought they were a threat. How he dealt with the issue or whose version of the incident is true is not relevant, but rather the manner in which it was exaggerated on social media. It snowballed to such an extent that a few hours later posts were going around that ‘two girls were nearly kidnapped’ at the school and the ‘principal was held at gunpoint’ in his office. Doubtfully these were deliberate lies, but it did cause panic.
Also read: Social media – If you won’t put it on a billboard…
A second incident was a post being shared on WhatsApp that stated a mass abduction of children were going to take place the ‘next day’, yet the post went around for at least a week and the ‘next day’ never came. The police rubbished the rumour but again this caused unnecessary concern.
Some social media users do not realise the very real danger of spreading unverified information. Violent riots and looting broke out in KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal which sadly also led to the killing of one person when the community thought a post saying foreigners were abducting girls and women, killing them and selling their body parts, were true. Public Order Police (Pops) had their hands full trying to protect foreigners and their shops.
Also read: How to use social media for activism
Africa Check, the reputable fact-checking organisation, also illustrated the danger of this practice by referring to an incident in Brazil. They wrote on their Facebook page, “Thought WhatsApp rumours were harmless? Tell that to two Brasilian colleagues who were beaten up and had their car set on fire. A mob in the city of Araruama thought they were the couple that supposedly kidnapped children to sell them as part of an international scheme – all because of a viral WhatsApp message”.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
