Thread by @superlinearza

THREAD: We're dealing with the 'fog of war' right now as the looting/insurrection continues. Here's a small attempt at some context based on 904k tweets as of Wednesday 14 July. #ShutdownSA

Four main communities are driving the conversation. Most of them are anti-looting and anti-insurrection. This network map visualises the communities involved on Twitter. Caveat: community membership is a statistical process; it does not 100% confirm ideological alignment.

Here's the same map but with users that mentioned pro-Zuma terms and hashtags like "msholozi" and "FreeZumaNow" highlighted in GREEN. No surprises that it's centred on the RET community but also the Anti-looting Community 1.

Here are users in PINK discussing the idea of the unrest being an orchestrated insurrection or coup attempt on the part of the Zuma-RET faction.

Here's a close-up of the Progressives, Liberals & Conservatives Community which is basically a catch-all community for a bunch of disparate groups. They are talking the most about insurrection and a coup.

These were the most retweeted tweets within the Progressives, Liberals & Conservatives Community as of Wednesday.

This is the Anti-looting Community 2 as of Wednesday

This is what's resonating within the Anti-looting Community 2

This is a close-up of Anti-looting Community 1 which has some Zuma sympathies (see the amount of users tagged as green within this community in the earlier network map).

...and these were the tweets that resonated the most (i.e received the most retweets within this community) with the Anti-looting Community 1.

Finally, this is what the Pro-Zuma RET Community, where the most incendiary content is coming from, looks like.

These were the top retweets within the Pro-Zuma RET Community.

In addition, here are a few examples of popular posts within the Pro-Zuma RET Community that some might consider incendiary. Many seek to enflame Black vs. Indian vs. White racial tensions.

Some more potentially incindiary tweets that were popular within the Pro-Zuma RET Community on Twitter.

cc @ferialhaffajee @errolbsk @goolammv @tumisole @MaxduPreez @zilevandamme @PaulivW @justicemalala @RediTlhabi @wayneduv