Black social media under fire

THE AHMED Kathrada Foundation has condemned a black social media platform for perpetuating divisions along racial lines.

The first black social media platform has not been launched but already has over 2 000 members and is stirring controversy.

DotAfro will be launched tomorrow and co-founder Mandisa Khanyile says it’s the first of its kind in South Africa and exclusively caters for people of colour.

“We have over 2 000 users and we haven’t even gone live yet. The users we have come from all parts of the world; we have aborigines, people from South America and the US. I want it to be a global voice for people of colour.

“It will be great to show them how it is meant to work on social media where people are working toward a common agenda.

“When white people are given a platform where they can unite, they use it to be violent against other races. You give them a platform where they can thrive and they use it to oppress other groups.”

She said that since they launched the beta test phase, they had received negative feedback.

“The reason is that white people feel that anything that is pro-black is automatically anti-white. We don’t even care about white people… they try to regulate and enforce our voices, we are deemed as violent, as black activists when we speak our minds.”

She added that “white allies” were more than welcome to join the platform.

DotAfro is currently in beta test phase and will be launching fully tomorrow.

The platform is being tested on both web and mobile by over 500 dedicated test users, with an app soon to be released in Android and IOS.

The executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, which forms part of the Anti Racism network, Neeshan Balton, said South Africa did not need an app like it.

“We need platforms that can engage across racial lines, that are not racially exclusive, because tomorrow you might have a white-only platform and that will further entrench divisions.”

A social media analyst who asked to remain anonymous said he did not think the app would work as it would be going up against big platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp.

“The issue is that you are fighting Facebook and Facebook is good at this. Everyone uses it because that is where everyone is. They have the reach and they are the dominant social media messaging apps in their respected fields.”

He added that they would have to have a strong appeal to the market directly, to those that want access that “kind of stuff ”.

“People will carry on using what they are using. you can find people on Facebook and WhatsApp them if you have their number.”