BORN OF THE INTERNET

Across the globe politicians are using social media to spread populist messages and, crucially, to win power

Say what you will about Jacob Zuma, but the man is no fool. It may gall some of us, but when it comes to the workings of the mind of the person in the street, he has been pretty smart. He won two general elections despite his allegedly corrupt activities being known to all.

So his decision to join the social media whirl is not to be underestimated or pooh-poohed.

Zuma wants something and he knows that having a huge, pliable constituency helps. He is building that constituency through social media.

He is not the first politician — and particularly not the first populist politician — to cut out the middleman that is the traditional, carefully curated, healthily sceptical media. All across the globe, in societies experiencing fear, division and inequality, politicians are using social media to stoke concerns, spread populist messages and, crucially, win power.

Take Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro.

The man totally ignored mainstream media during his campaign and concentrated on a Whatsapp and Facebook programme that targeted susceptible, largely uneducated voters.

Bolsonaro hammered away at the country’s main media organisations, accusing them of telling lies or ignoring his rise in the polls. While his opponents went on live television debates, he sent out thousands of messages on social media. The poor — tired of Brazil’s corrupt left-wing government and its media lackeys — were listening.

Which politician in SA uses these tactics — creating attack mobs on social media, promising to “deal with” independent journalists and giving interviews to pliable journalists who will ask sweetheart questions? Zuma did it when he was in office. Julius Malema is the same. US President Donald Trump is a master at it.

The New York Times recently carried a profile of the scary Matteo Salvini — Italy’s far-right leader and now also the interior minister — who posts his loves, likes and pet hates on social media all day.

“Salvini’s social media feeds are not really about product placement, or the musings of a proud culinary nationalist. Rather, say those who have worked closely with him, they are part of a carefully studied and remarkably successful strategy to sell his common-man brand in an antielite era,” the newspaper said.

His political rise, attributable in large part to social media, has been phenomenal.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines also came to power largely through the force of social media.

He too has stayed in power through a “keyboard army” of paid people whose job is “flooding Facebook with comments defending or praising him”.

With elections due in SA, it may be worth asking how politicians will use social media. City of Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba is already using his Twitter account — supported by an unlikely ally in former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi — to stoke fear and hatred about migrants. We have seen this before: Trump does it, Bolsonaro does it and right-wing politicians across Europe, such as Salvini, are doing it. In SA, though, it often leads to a lit match, a brick through the window and looting and killing. I merely have to mention the year 2008 to illustrate my point.

It is not just the far Right that is adept at using social media. A recent survey in the US found that Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, the fiery 29-year-old new Congresswoman, is dominating the Democratic Party conversation on Twitter, generating more interactions (retweets and likes) than the five most prolific news organisations in the country combined over the past month.

“She is the first — but certainly not the last — of an entirely new archetype: a politician that is not only fuelled by the internet, but born of it,” said Ben Thompson, founder of technology and media strategy consultants Stratechery.

My point? The hearts and minds of South Africans will soon not be won through traditional media.

The winners will be those who use the megaphone of social media. Malema has 2.29-million Twitter followers. President Cyril Ramaphosa has 393,000. Malema speaks directly to his followers. Ramaphosa is filtered by editors and others.

These things will soon matter.

Malema has 2.29million Twitter followers. President Cyril Ramaphosa has 393,000