As a South African, seeing the word "listeriosis" trending on Twitter is a signal of both bad news and terribly boring sandwiches devoid of meat products. But today, it's trending for a positive reason. Grab those knives, South Africa, because you can now eat polony to your heart's content (or until your doctor advises otherwise). South Africa's Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi announced today that the listeriosis outbreak, which plagued South Africa in early 2018, is now over. No new cases have been reported within the past three months. The beginning of @SAgovnews's thread can be found below. . @HealthZA Minister Aaron Motsoaledi...
The internet has seen some incredible dance fads in recent years. Who can forget the Haarlem Shake, 2013's fascination with twerking, or more recently the #InMyFeelings challenge? Now, UK Prime Minister Theresa May has become the centre of the latest. During her recent visit to a host of African countries, May first donned her dancing shoes at a school in Cape Town, bopping with a number of kids who actually understood rhythm. Former UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott called May's interpretation the "Maybot". I assume she’s doing the Maybot pic.twitter.com/xuWZICGRD5 — John Prescott (@johnprescott) August 28, 2018 She then arrived in Kenya, while onlookers...
If you thought Netflix nailing DStv was harsh, or Cell C mocking Rain's LTE service was crude, you're going to love Nando's shade at practically every brand in South Africa. In its latest ad posted to Twitter, the food firm takes aim at brands' lavish and often esoteric advertising campaigns. "Is this how we sell things now? Mxm. There’s more than one flavour to South Africa," Nando's chides on Twitter. Front and centre is an allusion to Absa's (sorry "African Nasti") recent brand refresh, adopting a similar logo and font. Aesthetically rich marketing campaigns are also slated, including those with face paints,...
YouTube is rolling out a new feature for creators called YouTube Giving. The suite is a set of features that creators or qualifying non-profit organisations can use to create various fundraising campaigns. Available in beta, creators can set up fundraisers on their channels and “allow fans to donate to creator-led campaigns directly on YouTube". This will be facilitated through a "Donate" button. The video platform's also encouraging Community Fundraisers, which allow creators and non-profits to team up and join each other for their causes. "The feature is designed so that a Community Fundraiser will appear on participating creators’ videos at the same time...
Eminem dropped his latest surprise album at midnight and it has sent the internet into a frenzy. Titled Kamikaze, the 13 track album is very much a long, angry rant about various social and political issues, particularly in the rap industry. It also directly calls out a significant number of popular rappers, including Drake. “…if you ain’t Joyner/If you ain’t Kendrick or Cole/Or Sean then you’re a goner”, says the rapper in the first track on the album, "The Ringer". Eminem announced Kamikaze’s release on his Twitter account, saying, “Tried not 2 overthink this 1... enjoy.” Tried not 2 overthink this 1... enjoy....
Facebook Watch -- the company's video streaming platform -- is now rolling out globally. Watch was initially release a year ago but was only available in the US. Now it will be open to the rest of the world too. "Taking Watch global also means new opportunities for creators and publishers around the world," said Facebook in its release. Watch is a sub-section of Facebook where users can find new videos and content to watch, as well as a hub for all your saved videos from their Facebook Feed. Users will be able to create a Watchlist, "a collection of recent videos from...
Ever wondered how much time you spend on YouTube? I’m sure you often feel like the answer is “too much” either way you look at it. But this week Google has rolled out more tools to make you face uncomfortable truths in the form of a digital wellbeing dashboard. “To give you a better understanding of how much you watch, we’ve built a profile that’s available in your account menu”, the company announced on its official blog. “This profile tells you how long you’ve watched YouTube videos today, yesterday and over the past seven days.” As is common with time tracking features across...
Instagram is bringing new security features to the social network. In a statement released by CTO Mike Krieger, the company will debut three additional safety features to its platform. "Our mission is to bring you closer to the people and things you love. That closeness can only happen if Instagram is a safe place”, he said. The first new feature adds an "about this account" menu to user profiles. “You will be able to see more information about accounts on Instagram that reach large audiences so you can evaluate the authenticity of the account.”, Krieger explains. Said information includes country of origin, mutual followers,...
You may want to think twice about posting your mobile number to Twitter, even if it's to "WhatsApp Africa". A tweet posted on Monday by "@whatsapp_Africa" dupes users into tweeting their mobile numbers in exchange for free data. "We are giving away free what’s app data for the whole of September," reads the tweet verbatim. "Follow and retweet. Comment with your WhatsApp number." Notably, the tweet was also labeled as "promoted" by Twitter. At the time of writing, the post has more than 110 replies with many including mobile numbers. Some users however had questions, and even more doubts that the account was...
Cape Town and surrounds did in fact have an "interesting" weekend of weather, at least according to SAWS. The national weather service issued widespread warnings of gale force winds, heavy rains and localised flooding in areas across the Western Cape. It also mentioned snow. And Instagram wasn't too far behind the forecast. On Sunday, hundreds of social media users and adventurers posted pictures and videos of themselves enjoying snow in the province. Ceres, and the surrounding Koue Bokkeveld mountains, was a hotbed (coldbed?) of activity. Sneeu buite Ceres! ❄❄❄ Foto's | @shelleychristians #wegtydskrif #joureisbeginhier #menseselense #southafrica #travelmagazine #ontdekjouplek #sneeu #diswinter #snow #westerncape #ceres A...
For those wondering just how Adam Catzavelos would respond to South Africa's uproar regarding his racist viral video, you now have your answer. "I have caused unspeakable pain to every single person in South Africa," began the first official statement made by Catzavelos after said video was published to Twitter on Tuesday. The video depicts Catzavelos using a racial slur on a beach while delivering a weather report. Not "one k***** in sight", he notes in the video. The clip and the resultant anger became one of South Africa's biggest stories on Wednesday, spawning a new meme, and prompting the likes of...
EFF leader Julius Malema has called US President Donald Trump a "pathological liar" after he called for an investigation into South Africa's land reforms and farm murders. During a briefing at the party's headquarters in Braamfontein on Thursday, Malema slapped Trump's involvement in South Africa's politics. "e must put it on record, unequivocally, that Donald “the pathological liar” Trump, we are not scared of you and your USA or Western imperialist forces," he said. "We are not the generation that is going to kneel at the statue of Western imperialism and accept to live in the indignity of black landlessness." #EFFMediaBriefing Malema:...
Google Searches for South Africa has spiked after Fox News ran a segment, anchored by Tucker Carlson, addressing the country's land expropriation debate. The spike also comes after US President Donald Trump tweeted that Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, will investigate the issue more closely. (Read a full report on Trump's comments and reaction here). And while Twitter users have used all 280 characters to air their views, there is another way we can gauge internet sentiment: Google Trends. Looking at specific queries punched into Google's search bar, we can evaluate just how SA is perceived within the United States. And...
US President Donald Trump this morning turned his eye towards South Africa after a Fox News segment, anchored by Tucker Carlson, dipped its toes into the land expropriation debate. "South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has just begun the process of seizing land from his own citizens, without compensation, purely due to their skin color," the report's description on YouTube reads. "That's far more racist than anything Donald Trump has ever done, of course, but elites in America barely even care." Read more: Google searches for South Africa spike after Fox News video, Trump tweet In the segment, Carlson laments the South African government...
Adam Catzavelos, the South African whose racial slur-loaded video found its way onto Twitter, is already a meme. In said viral video which appeared on the social network on Tuesday, Catzavelos gives his viewers a brief weather report from an exotic beach, adding that there's not "one k***** in sight". Political parties and prominent social media users soon laid into Catzavelos, with the EFF in particular laying a case against him. But it seems that some South Africans are finding a more inventive and immediate way to respond to his comments. The hashtag #AdamCatzavelosChallenge briefly trended on Twitter in South Africa on...
South Africa fumes online after girl was raped in Dros restaurant toilet
Julius Malema will let JSomething keep his land in an EFF-led South Africa
Dros Silverton bombarded by negative reviews after child rape
Video: Hey Cape Town, it’s officially snowing on Table Mountain right now
SA government asks Twitter users to stop sharing videos of Dros rape
Cyril Ramaphosa’s stimulus package gets social media talking
Web’s inventor Tim Berners-Lee wants to give users control of their internet data
Updating: ‘Wildcat’ MyCiti strike brings Cape Town to a standstill
This sometimes drunk, adorable pigeon is New Zealand’s bird of the year
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry excite the internet with #royalbaby news
Twitter’s new favourite Ariana Grande song is ‘pete davidson’
Memeburn focuses on everything digital in the emerging markets sphere. More about us here
