South Africa's Social Media Blackout Proves it's Hard to Log Off

Ntsiki Mazwai has cheered on South Africans to participate in a social media blackout to bring attention to the cost of data in the country. The idea is to log off from all social media platforms for 24 hours, but since the hashtag #socialmediashutdown has been trending on Twitter this seems unlikely. The purpose of the blackout is to lower high data costs and Mazwai has called on South Africans to not purchase data for 24 hours. This, however, doesn’t mean that they’re not on social media, thanks to WiFi.

#SocialMediaShutdown When you have been offline and decide to cheat only to realise shutdown is trending🤔 pic.twitter.com/zWChzeIOoq
— forbykay (@forbykay) June 21, 2017
In a previous study by research company Tariffic, South Africa’s data costs were compared to those of Brazil, Russia, India, China, Kenya and Australia. Results show that Brazil has the highest data costs while South Africa follows at a close second.

#SocialMediaShutdown shutting down social media will not bring down the prices of data. Only not buying and using data will bring it down
— Ndumi S Khumalo (@skhums29) June 21, 2017
Mazwai argues that data shouldn’t expire after 30 days and that costs should be lowered. Her rally to boycott social media platforms for 24 hours seems fairly unsuccessful as users are instead voicing their frustrations online. This might in the end prove to be even more effective than the initial plan as there’s been a major response with thousands of tweets being sent out.

Although the hashtag has ironically reached trending status on social media the general consensus seems to be one of confusion. Social media users are unsure whether they should be supporting the cause on Twitter or following the initial instructions to log off. One thing we do know is that the issue is attracting a lot of attention, which is the ultimate goal.

Here are some highlights from social media.

I’m guessing this is not really working…#SocialMediaShutdown pic.twitter.com/XE54ZWDv23
— Mbatha (@DaffyNjabz) June 21, 2017
Dear @TelkomZA
We r going offline Wednesday the 21st #SocialMediaShutdown #TouchSoldOut #DataMustFall pic.twitter.com/CBmAdd40vE
— Fighter Fannie 🇿🇦 (@mashiyanef) June 19, 2017
How is this #SocialMediaShutdown hashtag trending though ? pic.twitter.com/OrmQcy6CQ8
— Altjozi (@altjozi) June 21, 2017
#SocialMediaShutdown still trending 😂 pic.twitter.com/ZPRLh5leJm
— fikile Zam Sithole (@fikZam) June 21, 2017
For your own record we are not using data,we are on free Wi-Fi pantsi ka expensive data pantsi #Socialmediashutdown #socialmediablackout pic.twitter.com/PcZvkB1FLH
— Lekgolo (@Ngwanabo4) June 21, 2017