Twitter uses #EFFFacts to both mock and praise party

The EFF has long been the ruling party of Twitter, marketing itself well to the youth on the platform. One need only look at followers to recognise the popularity: leader Julius Malema has over 1.5-million followers, as opposed to DA leader Mmusi Maimane’s 646 000, and President Jacob Zuma’s 429 000.

It’s thus no surprise how often the party trends nationally, but it’s not always positive.

Thursday morning, #EFFFacts was trending in third place, ostensibly coined to make fun of everything for which the party gets credited. The first tweet seems to have come from user @bslekgoathi1.

“Did you know that EFF members are the producers of sista bethina? [sic],” they wrote.

Others picked up the tag with the same tongue-in-cheek humour of the first.

But some users employed the hashtag with more positive outlooks.

It eventually became a war of sincerity vs sarcasm — though in terms of numbers, sincerity was losing dramatically.

“It was actually the EFF fighters who built Robben Island from scratch,” wrote one user.

“EFF is the only hope for poverty eradication,” wrote user @JimmyNtshebele1.

No official EFF account has picked up on the trend yet, though it’s sure to be interesting when they do.

Featured image: GovernmentZA via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0, edited)

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