Marketing & Media Africa

The battleground of social media - 7 Aug 2017

By Louise Marsland

It was a week dominated by fake news and social media influence across the continent. In Kenya, Facebook has taken action to halt the spread of fake news so it does not influence Kenya's elections, even taking out adverts in the country's newspapers, explaining how to combat fake news.
In South Africa, which faces yet another contentious week in politics with another no-confidence vote against President Jacob Zuma, the Daily Maverick held The Gathering event in Cape Town, this time focusing on media and politics. This, in the wake of the #Guptaleaks corruption and state capture scandal which saw a London PR firm hired to spread racial dissent and discredit key South African politicians, business people and journalists, via fake news websites and Twitter bots. Click through to all our coverage from The Gathering: How to save SA from state capture and media elitism, why Fake news is ‘weaponised social media', and why Media freedom is a cornerstone of democracy.

Have a great week!
Louise Marsland
Africa Editor: Bizcommunity.com

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