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The biggest take away from this scuffle between Nigeria and South Africa will probably be how serious and dangerous fake news is.
Seeing a lot of thought leaders talking about killing and butchering of Nigerians in SA has really proven this point. Not a single Nigerian has been killed in these xenophobic attacks. Not one.
Almost all the videos people refer to have been debunked as old, not involving anyone from another country or not being in SA at all.
What definitely did happen is looting of mostly Somali and Bangladeshi owned stores and even some South African ones. Some property belonging to Nigerians and other groups was destroyed. And that is enough to justify outrage. There’s no need to augment on to that.
The situation has not been good. Looting, burning and hate are all bad. But the fake news definitely has been adding fuel to that.
Even in SA we are victims of lot of fake news. Remember when Katlehong was trending, apparently Somalis were abducting and kidnapping kids and burning schools. It caused a panic but turned out to be completely untrue.
“Fake news thrive when governments fail to live up to their responsibility.” My Nigerian bro @Omojuwa taught me that. If we had clear information from all our governments the situation would be a lot more calm.
We will have to figure out a long term way to fight against the rise of fake news, but for now, as a thought leader, as an influential person with a big following it is your responsibility to verify before you tweet.
Check whether any reputable news source has confirmed what you are saying. Call someone in the affected area and ask. Call a police station in the area and find out before causing the panic, animosity and violence you are trying to do away with.
