ANC Youth League wants to… ‘close’ or get ‘closer’ to Twitter. We’re confused.

It seems the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has finally had enough of all the fake Twitter accounts that have sprung up in the name of Julius Malema, hilariously calling on the authorities to “closer (sic.) Twitter if its administrators are not able to administer reports for violation of basic human rights and integrity”.

Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu frothed that the “impersonators” and “hackers” (Twitter was hacked again? This time by Malema impostors?) would feel the full force of the law, claiming that the “laws of this country will come down very hard on them”.

In an insignificant twist of irony, the ANCYL press release itself felt somewhat like a typical Tweet with spelling and grammatical errors in the very headline which screamed in CAPSLOCK: “ANC YOUTH LEAGUE CONCERNED BY CRETATION (sic.) OF FAKE TWITTER ACCOUNTS IN THE NAME OF ANC YOUTH LEAGUE PRESIDENT JULIUS MALEMA”. (Read the Youth League statement in full).

Memeburn reckons there is untapped Tweet talent there, and that in fact ANCYL should take to micro-blogging with gusto.

But at a time when the notorious @pigspotter has managed to evade the public for so long, the Malema impersonator (@julius_s_malema) doesn’t seem particularly worried, posting this tweet late on Wednesday afternoon.

“We will shut down the whole internets. If need be, we will ask Gov to block or disallow Twitter IP addresses in SA.”

In fact the announcement by the league seems to have spurred a dormant Malema account back into action. @JuliusMalema tweeted in the last hour for the first time in over six months with this special little tweet:

“We shall make these cowards run back to the sea. for those that do not then we will cut the them to pieces and throw them back.”

Malema is not the only ANC leader to have felt the wrath of the Twitter masses. President Jacob Zuma is also a prime target. The most recent tweet from @realjacobzuma may have been the one that finally pushed the ANC to take a stand against Twitter.

Team-How am I supposed to get any work done when my day starts with the headline: “Mule fingers Sheryl Cwele”?

How will the tweeters respond to these threats? Will it spur them on to further action, or will many of them retreat from the anger boiling over from the ruling party?

Memeburn reckons local politicians should rather focus on running the country and take the Tweets with a nano-gram of salt — like most politicians across the world. In fact, now it’s just going to get more intense. Good luck shutting down Twitter, ANCYL.

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