Narratives that conflate xenophobic sentiments with patriotism on social media could be used by political parties ahead of next year’s elections as a tool to win support.
In an effort to lure support, some political parties and leaders have, on occasion, even flouted the IEC's electoral code of conduct on ocial media to remain trending or to feature in online conversations. Frequently, they have not been held accountable or responsible for this, writes Ebrahim Fakir, Molebogeng Mokoka and Euston Witbooi.
With just over two weeks to go to the municipal elections, it appears that the overall mistrust of the Independent Electorial Commission (IEC) has declined when examining conversations on Twitter. Ebrahim Fakir, Molebogeng Mokoka and Euston Witbooi examined the conversations on the social media platform and look at some of the trends arising ahead of the elections.