AUGUST REPORT: Politics, Sports and Cultural dabates rocked S. Sudan’s social media landscape

Author: Bida Emmanuel 

Introduction

This social media health report is based on data collected during working days from August 1st to August 31st, 2021. The major goal of the report is to examine the main and most talked about conversations on various social media platforms. 

The report as well studies the overall dynamics of hate speech, dis/misinformation and incitement to violence contents shared by South Sudanese netizens and foreign nationals related to South Sudanese regardless of being situated within the country or abroad – a study also signifies South Sudan’s digital and social media landscape and growth. 

This month’s monitoring comprises an overall assessment of top Facebook pages’ social media posts using CrowdTangle’s platform and other social media monitoring techniques. Report’s key topics are identified based on the level of participation and the amount of attention it receives on social media.

In the August reporting period, a total of 129 out of 198 pages published posts, totaling to 7,480 posts with an average of 2.07 posts per day. 

In comparison with July’s report total number of interactions, August’s number of interactions went down -11.09 percent. 

Findings: Key issues of the month 

1. The killing of Catholic Nuns in the road ambush along the Juba Nimule Highway

An attack along South Sudan’s major road connecting the country to the East African Region left five people killed. The fateful ambush that occurred on 16th of August led to the killing of two Catholic reverend sisters. 

Though three suspects linked to the attack were apprehended, the occurrence left various social media platforms talking. A Facebook issue by an online media house – Talk of Juba had over 1,400 reactions, 2,600 comments and 61 shares.

Several comments extended condolence messages and sympathies for the loss of lives that occured. However, some people were wondering if South Sudan shall ever have true peace. Most comments did not have hate speech or misinformation components.

2. Wrestling Spectators in Sherikat standing on motorbikes

Twic Media Report – an online/unregulated media house on Aug 18, 2021posted a picture captioned “Wrestling Spectators in Sharikat when they were watching Gongic being thrown down” drew audience attention with over 3,000 reactions, 73 comments and 19 shares. Gonic, mostly known as a PhD wrestling graduate, is a Jonglei State naitive. 

The comments expressed surprise but also cautioned the spectators watching the match while standing on their motorbikes from falling.

 “Good brothers and great, but problem is there when you fall down,” reads a comment from one online user, while another commenter said “U should have to mind about your life brothers. What if you fall down from there? Who will you blame?”.

3. South Sudanese-American middle-distance runner wins a gold medal, breaking a national record by Ajee Wilson set in 2017 in the Olympics games

On 11 August, Athing Mu – a 19 year old South Sudanese American middle distance runner broke a record at the Tokyo Olympics 2021. She won a gold medal in the 800 meters, breaking a national record set by Ajee Wilson in 2017.

The Facebook post by Radio Tamazuj floated with mob congratulatory messages got over 1,000 reactions – 155 comments and 42 shares making it the most viral post that day.   

Shockingly, some people were wondering why the medal Athing won for America is being associated with South Sudan.

“Stop associating South Sudan to America’s success. That is a sad way of consoling us,” reads a comment. “I do not know why people of South Sudan are congratulating Athing Mu who is American,” reads another comment.

4. Presidential Security Affairs Minister condemns Kitgwang Declaration by a section of the SPLM/A – IO

In a 10th August Facebook Video by the Ministry of ICT and Postal Services, President Kiir Presidential Advisor Tut Gatluak in a press conference condemned a Kitgwang declaration by a breakaway group led by Simon Gatwech Dual and Johnson Olony in Magenis, Upper Nile State.

In the video that had 18,400 views, 776 reactions, 32 comments and 180 shares, Tut talked about the formation of a committee to investigate and address the root causes of the conflict within SPLA-IO.

5. COVID-19 vaccines acceptance through grassroots engagement

A rapid assessment by the UN children organization in South Sudan indicated that there was an information gap resulting from misinformation and disinformation linked to the coronavirus vaccine. 

UNICEF said the Integrated Community Mobilization Network quickly helped to increase the daily vaccination coverage by the sixth day from 20 people to 200 per day in Warrap State.

In the comment session of the Facebook post, the public raised concerns about getting their second jab due to vaccine shortage and also questioned why the picture of the people who lined up for vaccination were not adhering to Covid-19 preventive measures.  

“Social distancing was not maintained. Where are the Standard Operating Procedures? Asks a commentator. Another wondered why, “vaccination was good when social distancing was not there?”.  

6. Demonstration on 30th August 2021

Another hot trending topic discussed on social media in the last weeks of August was the peaceful strike due to poor governance in South Sudan, organized by a pressure group; the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA). 

It made people create memes such as the above picture shared by Juba Eye on Sunday, 29th August captioned, “this photo was taken tomorrow in Juba town”.

The post had over 3,000 reactions, 746 comments and 133 shares, though some people were concentrating on what they term as grammatical error, the meme was depicting the likelihood of protestors being hunted by organised forces should they stage a demonstration. 

Conclusion

Using advanced social media monitoring methods, conversation, and content analysis, this report analyzed online hate speech, misinformation and fake news in South Sudan. 

According to the month-long assessment report, contemporary social media behavior is becoming a severe worry. Hate speech can be found not just in postings, but also in comment sections.

Furthermore, the study discovered that what individuals are talking about and sharing on social media overlaps. People are exposed to a variety of realities, and as a result, they express varying viewpoints and instead of being honest and having a reasonable dialogue, social media users prefer to utilize slurs and incendiary phrases. 

As a result, the report identified that overall social media involvement is widely healthy, with minimal nasty content and calls for violence being produced and disseminated. 

The 211 Check team also observed that mainstream media was not involved in spread of conspiracies but employed  conflict-sensitive reporting practices. However, this is the moment for all stakeholders to address key issues before they become a source of unanticipated events.  

End….