Fake news creating a stir in SA

Moves at work to push political agendas

LAST Friday, the unwitting Twitter user may have been inclined to believe respected journalists were squaring up against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The first of these appeared to be from Radio 702 where financial journalists Alec Hogg and Peter Bruce were quoted expressing anti-Gordhan sentiments.

These posts were followed by Huffington Post South Africa seemingly quoting Ferial Haffajee’s views against the minister, and four minutes later, a similar post appeared to come from the Sunday Times.

These accounts were, in fact, fake and had “parody account” listed in their Twitter bios. The more astute were quick to alert others; this was followed by allegations of “paid twitter” having a hand.

Allegations that covert forces are operating on Twitter to defend certain individuals came to a head over the release of the State of Capture report in November, and researchers have tried to identify those aiming to slander, among others, Gordhan.

The Daily Maverick published an in-depth report on these paid authors. Following an amaBhungane exposé of an alleged ANC “war room” during last year’slocal government elections, Shaka Sisulu is accused of being a member of “paid twitter”.

These fake news accounts were relatively dormant before January 20 when these accounts collectively published 38 tweets in 50 minutes, and then fell silent.The mentions from these accounts were published between 4.49pm and 5.38pm, and response to these tweets was quick – 92% of all the retweets happened in the first two hours after the content was posted.

The behaviour of those retweeting this fake content was eerily similar. There was a strong positive correlation between their tweeting behaviour. All these relationships were statistically significant, suggesting a highly co-ordinated effort.

Those who retweeted were mostly from one grouping of people. For instance, 43% of this group tweeted content from three out of four of these fake accounts, while a further 21% retweeted content from all these counterfeit accounts.

The strong correlation in behaviour and the clear overlap in authors again suggest they were acting in unison to disseminate the fake content.

We distilled the overlapping authors into a list of 225. From July 1, 2016 to January 23, 2017, these authors have generated 87 829 mentions – this is an average of 390 mentions per author. One of the most prolific of these contributors had 1 420 tweets in December – roughly 47 tweets per day.

What was striking was that almost all were engaged in conversations over the November and December period – just after the State of Capture report had been released.

In other words, returning authors refer to those who had posted at least once in previous months. This group was most heavily deployed between October and November.

The key themes aim to unseat Pravin Gordhan; #PravinMustGo was used 17 616 times (or 20% of these tweets). Another critique levelled by these authors was that Pravin Gordhan and others were puppets to white masters.

Another prominent theme was state capture (#StateCapture or #StateCaptureReport).

While the broader South African public tended to focus on Zuma’s role in the State of Capture report,the tracked authors shifted the conversation to a critique of white capital and whiteowned media.

Their conversations focused on Andile Mngxitama’s address at the New Age Business Brief event, particularly his statement that the South African economy had been captured by white capital. A striking hashtag used by this group was #HandsOffGuptas.

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, told EWN: “This is to try to persuade people that there’s another kind of reality, they’re aiming to shift political discourse.”

Conversations adopted the rhetoric of populist leaders such as Mngxitama and EFF leader Julius Malema, on white capital and reparations.

BrandsEye data reveals the company this group has most vigorously targeted has been Absa, after public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s preliminary report on funds pocketed during apartheid.

The conversation analysis highlights conversations aimed to protect the Gupta family.

While research and analysis point to the types of behaviour and conversations this group engages in, we can only guess their ultimate agenda.

A number of commentators have alluded to the idea that a UK-based PR firm, Bell Pottinger, which represents the Guptas’ Oakbay Investments, may be behind this.

Last month, Business Live reported comments that Johann Rupert had made at Remgro’s AGM.

Rupert stated of Bell Pottinger: “Their total task was to deflect attention (from state capture allegations involving the Guptas). Guess who they took as a target? A client of theirs… Me!”

More recently, Rupert told Huffington Post South Africa that he’d received a text message from a member of the ANC, stating: “The Guptas have hired Bell Pottinger to push the ‘state capture’ story on to you. They’ll earn R24 million, plus expenses, for their work. It will be paid by an intermediary (a known Gupta associate).”

Well-known journalist Ferial Haffajee, a victim of one of these fake news stories, tweeted she believed Bell Pottinger were the culprits, and former public protector Thuli Madonsela similarly hintedthe firm was behind this

Oakbay has denied any involvement in the fake news campaign.

This is taking place against a global background of fake news – “alternative facts” – and misinformation, and the South African online space seems to be enacting a worldwide trend. Particularly in light of the alleged ANC war room, South Africans need to keep an eye on potential forces covertly influencing news and social media for their own political ends.

Kloppers is chief executive of BrandsEye, an integrated media analytics and insights company.