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Cancel culture 101: Navigating the business of social media
Twitter troll behind @TracyZille account to face Equality Court
The SAHRC was working on the case even before the DA sent a complaint to them, after picking up on consistent tweets from the account punting racist and xenophobic content.
A Zulu men residing at the Jeppe Hostel shout while waving a stick towards the police in JeppesTown, in Johannesburg, on September 3, 2019, following a second night of urban rioting in this area of the city in an unusually large expression of anti-foreigner sentiment. – The township was scene to a second night of urban rioting in Johannesburg, where hundreds of people marched through the streets on September 2 in an unusually large expression of anti-foreigner sentiment. Such violence breaks out sporadically in South Africa where many nationals blame immigrants for high unemployment, particularly in manual labour. (Photo by GUILLEM SARTORIO / AFP)
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is taking who they believe is behind the notorious Twitter troll @TracyZille account to the Equality Court.
The main @TracyZille Twitter account. Photo: Screenshot
There are multiple accounts with the same name currently on Twitter.
Photo: Screenshot
The @TracyZille Twitter account saw the man suspected to be behind the account posing as a white woman, and tweeted several “racial incendiary tweets aimed at spurring on racial discontent,” explained the DA’s justice and correctional services shadow minister Glynnis Breytenbach.
This is Evita Bezuidenhout. She and Cyril Ramaphosa were dating. She was supposed to be the first wife. But Thabo Mbeki happened and Cyril didn’t become a president. Cyril left her for Patrice Motsepe’s sister. While Blacks couldn’t get near Whites, Cyril was having sex with them pic.twitter.com/eMqsZ74KMU
— Tracey Zille (@TraceyZille) July 27, 2020
“The utterances on the @TracyZille account sought to demean black South Africans, whilst at the same time vilifying white South Africans.”
SA Black men are pure cowards. They are driven by fear. Even their own women have lost hope in them. SA Churches are filled wit Black women seeking spiritual intervention because men failed. These drunkards own nothing. What kind of men are u who do not own your land and economy?
— Tracy Zille (@TracyZille) August 20, 2020
A black man can’t feed himself ,his wife and in some cases,his wives but still goes on to have over 8 children.A white man is having a maximum of 2 kids and makes sure they receive the best education.That’s the reason why the whites continue to be richer and the blacks poorer.
— Tracy Zille (@TracyZille4) July 12, 2020
SAHRC Limpopo provincial manager Victor Mavhidula told The Citizen that for now, the name of the respondent is being withheld, saying the commission does not want to publicly identify him before they are sure it is who they suspect.
“We are trying to make sure we don’t create loopholes in our case,” Mavhidula explained, adding that there is evidence linking him to the account, thanks to the SAHRC’s own verification process. The commission used tracers to identify the accused.
He said the SAHRC was working on the case even before the DA sent a complaint to them, after picking up on consistent tweets from the account punting racist and xenophobic content.
Simphiwe Ngema was impregnated by a Zimbabwean national, Zimbabwe is winning, congratulations. pic.twitter.com/UqdPkcKYey
— Tracy Zille (@TracyZille4) August 12, 2020
“We all know these kinds of tweets create problems in our society. We can’t allow this to go on, it can lead the country to a civil war. It advocates the position of hatred towards other races. But we don’t want to lose on technicalities.”
The case at this stage is sensitive and complex, Mavhidula said, saying that the matter was different to anything they’ve come across before.
“We are going to handle it differently, and after our assessment, we may need to get high-profile advocates involved to look at the complexity of the matter.”
The SAHRC believes the reasons behind the respondent’s tweets was “to inflict serious harm”, and should the commission find there has been a violation of human dignity, they will take the case further.
Colored people have no country or village,they don’t belong anywhere.
— Tracy Zille (@TracyZille4) July 31, 2020
“We don’t want to find ourselves in this situation as a country. We are advocating for nation-building. We don’t want to be a country where we don’t forget about racism, and when we try to move forward, someone does this,” Mavhidula explained.
This is the newly hired CEO of SAA. His name is Philip Saunders, he is not from South Africa. The man is from United Kingdom. Where is Put South Africa First and Black Twitter. Ooh sorry only Black People Must Fall and only Africans are foreigners taking your jobs. #tracyzille pic.twitter.com/9mAjHYdnLd
— Tracey Zille (@TraceyZille) July 16, 2020
The @Lerato_pillay Twitter account created in November last year has fuelled toxic dialogues on the social media platform aimed at debasing foreign nationals in South Africa, according to the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change’s (CABC) interim report.
CABC director of dialogue facilitation Stef Snel told The Citizen that before the Lerato Pillay account was created and a subsequent network established, xenophobic conversations on Twitter were averaging at around 250 posts per day.
Since then, xenophobic posts have increased 120 times, averaging at 30,000 posts a day, and on busy days, peaking at 80,000 posts.
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