Activist urges caution on social media amid scam

Feminist and human rights activist, Lebo Ramafoko, has urged social media users to be moved by facts and not emotions.

Ramafoko’s appeal comes after a digital creator Belinda “Bee” Moloto recently went viral on social media following her appeal for donations, claiming she was left stranded in Durban following an altercation with her partner at the popular horse racing event, the Durban July.

After some generous people, who were not aware that her claims were a skit, donated money to assist her get home, Moloto the next day came out saying she’s solved her differences with the partner and that they were now planning another trip – this time to Cape Town. A revelation that frustrated some social media users.

Ramafoko has encouraged people to critically assess content before responding to pleas on digital platforms.

“The caution that people need to have is rather than being moved by emotion, they need to be moved by fact. We need to ask ourselves: Before a person came on to social media to ask for help, what are some of the ways in which they could have solved their problem? I want to believe that if you are going out for instance to the Durban July, it is an event with so many people that at the very best you can have somebody who can give you a lift, even when your boyfriend invites you there,” says Ramafoko.

The Civil rights expert says she believes more people will become victims of fraud as social media is an unreliable platform, where actions of some users cannot be verified. The markets and consumer culture are also part of the problem as they are the primary forces behind content creation on these digital platforms.

“I really worry whether or not we are really weather we are critical enough of why we create content and what the value to us as a society it is. It’s very individualistic, it is about securing the bag, and it is about being enslaved to brands, in a surreptitious manner. I know very few content creators who are creating content that is about upliftment that is about critical dialogue,” remarks Ramafoko.

The rights activist has urged people to critically discuss the history of content creation culture and the true beneficiaries of it, adding that while everyone has the right to share content, people should always think about the impact their content will have on others.

“People would rather see you die and would be insensitive to families and how they feel just for the sake of content. They film things which happen at car accidents or film people in very compromising salutations and some of it problematic, misogynistic, and toxic,” says Ramafoko. Written by Odirile Rabalao