William Bird

Director of Media Monitoring Africa, Ashoka and Linc Fellow, love monitoring and analysing media. Also love data and data journalism

[Moxii Africa @moxiiafrica]

As local elections approach, digital disinformation, online harassment, and targeted hate speech increase significantly across social media platforms.

“What’s Rot on Real411” is a bi-weekly live webzine/webinar designed to track high-volume disinformation trends, analyze real reported cases, and equip media, civil society, and voters with practical tools to spot digital harms.

Hosted by Real411 Secretariat members, each session acts as both a live public dialogue and a high-yield of content engine for social media distribution.
This is one session of many , do not miss out.

WATCH FOR MORE : https://t.co/Gj2WKngSOh

[Moxii Africa @moxiiafrica]

[WEBINAR]: Isu Elihle Alumni Competition Winner Announcement 🏆

Moxii Africa invites you to the Isu Elihle Alumni Competition winner announcement.
This competition gathered previous Isu Elihle award-winning journalists to write stories centred on children's rights and access to their voices.

This was followed by a live editorial pitch from each journalist, challenged by the judges, the public and a learner.

REGISTER TO ATTEND : https://t.co/GTasCMHwdu

[Phumzile Van Damme @zilevandamme]

Listen to what he is saying. Really listen.

South Africa, I repeat, is the poster child for the anti-equality, anti-multicultural, white-supremacist "white replacement" rhetoric of the MAGA universe.

South Africa is weaponised in MAGA rhetoric to stoke fear of racial displacement, of the US's "swart gevaar" and, incidentally, the "rooi gevaar" of the Democrats. It serves as a fear-producing political instrument to consolidate the MAGA base around Trump, the saviour of America's white race within its borders and beyond. White Knightism, as a political strategy, is what that is called. Manufactured racial crisis management.

Fear is a trick as old as time, dear reader. It consolidates communities around a shared fear. It closes ranks. And makes people easier to manipulate.

It's a crying shame that South Africans are willingly allowing themselves to be useful idiots in a political chess game that is obvious even to the deaf and blind. Political pawns. Nothing less. Nothing more.

But we are all adults here, and make adult decisions we all have to live with.

A future administration will likely reverse Trump's Afrikaner-refugee policy and expel its beneficiaries as not true refugees. Easy win in court. See, that, my dears, is a policy that rests on executive order and presidential refugee determinations, not a permanent statutory entitlement. I shudder to think what an absolute disaster expulsion would be for people who have built lives on weak ground, promised manna from heaven by a charlatan who saw them as nothing more than useful to stoke fears to stay in power, the consequences to their very real lives be damned. Ai. We are all adults.

You will stand with the ruins of your life at your feet and cry for help from those you called names and turned your back on. Will they hear your wails and feel your sorrow?

[Songezo Zibi @SongezoZibi]

On Mteto Nyati.

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

What a fantastic show! Go see @chestermissing and his band of creature including a German mosquito and a crocodile!! Great show, so many excellent jokes and full of gees. Go see it. @PieterToerien

[Moxii Africa @moxiiafrica]

On the Media Freedom Festival 2026 Stage: Day 1 🎤

Professor Prinola Govenden is the @unescoROSA Chair in Cultural Inclusivity and Equity in Digital Media in Africa (2026 – 2030), University of Johannesburg (UJ).
She is an Associate Professor at UJ’s Department of Communication and Media and she joins Day 1 of the Media Freedom Festival to speak on Incitement, Online Harms and.

This session unpacks the full spectrum of online harms, from everyday risks like harassment, hate speech, and disinformation, to the heightened dangers that emerge during electoral periods, including coordinated disinformation campaigns, targeted attacks on journalists and candidates, and the manipulation of public discourse through paid influence and platform amplification.

Date : 14 October 2026 , 10:30AM SAST
Venue : Goethe-Institute, Parktown, Johannesburg.

Register: https://t.co/TpDoxgyHkx
#MFF2026

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Anyhow, here’s the great @doctorow on the latest AI bullshit for @thenerve_news. Please do sign up for our free newsletter or even better share with a friend 🙏

https://t.co/hosIkINZ2z

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

A sensational court victory for democracy! @ICASA_org elections regs mean a complaint to the CCC must be dealt with within 5 days! It means broadcasters who deny a peb or pa will have tight deadlines for a decision. Speedy resolution! @moxiiafrica @Dariomilo

[IEC South Africa @IECSouthAfrica]

Democracy Squad: Special Vote Alert! 🗳️

Did you know? If you can’t make it to your voting station on Election Day, you can apply for a Special Vote!
Options available:
🔹 At your Voting Station
🔹 Home Visit (Must be home 07:00–21:00)

Apply Here: https://t.co/PaOkgSe6Qi

#IEC

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

We now discussing costs. Less than an hour. And we Jsut about done. Amazing to see what a court can do ! @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

We say no reasonable prospect of different outcome. It is likely it will
Go to Supreme Court. If leave is granted. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Judge is with us on section 18. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

No reason to think they will be overwhelmed. Contacts put up by icasa as to why they can’t.Comply. Da example shows why time period is essential. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

What they do instead is that they don’t give time frames. We don’t agree that timeframes are unreasonable. They look at act. Etc. it can be done @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Ferraris. It is icasa that decides this scheme. We tried to say they could
Have done differently. It they gave power to station manager. If you build it. Then you have to make fast effective mechanism where person get it wrong @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Van Niekerk: let’s be frank the time frames are rigid. We all do not practice so not everyone know how to work that hard. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Van Niekerk this is a Manet of national importance. There shouldn’t. Be dispute by institution like Moxii and then icasa
If not told By end of day I will Do judgement. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

We are up now. Is there any possibility of renegotiating time frames. Van nieke I wan to deliver judgement by Monday. So how long and when can this take place. We can do it in course of day. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Judge replies. I could even have crafted the regulations myself. I have the authority. @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel

[William Bird @Billbobbird]

Icasa tries to come back with some
Final comments. I think they are trying to build basis for leave to appeal if the judge denies @Dariomilo @ICASA_org @moxiiafrica @webberwentzel