As the year comes to a close, we look back at some of the year’s most significant tech news and developments.
In October, WhatsApp services, including group chats and voice and video calling, were down in South Africa and beyond. The outage left many users fuming, as some blamed their WiFi and mobile data connections, before realising the problem was with WhatsApp.
Initially, users only saw a single tick when attempting to send messages.
After a while, they noticed the clock icon, which indicated that messages were not being delivered.
The outage lasted about two hours, making it one of WhatsApp’s longest.
Parent company Meta, while apologising for the outage, said: “The brief outage was a result of a technical error on our part and has since been resolved.”
In 2021, Meta’s entire family of apps—Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram—suffered an outage that was more than two hours long. This outage doesn’t only leave users frustrated, but companies lose money.
According to Statista, in April 2022, WhatsApp had approximately 2.44 billion unique active users worldwide, up 6.4% compared to the corresponding month in 2021.
Twitter outages in 2022
Twitter has also received its fair share of outages in 2022. In February, Twitter suffered a widespread outage that it blamed on a software glitch.
In October, an hour-long Twitter outage kept thousands of users across the globe from accessing the social media website.
But soon after the outage, Twitter fixed what they have described as a software glitch in its micro-blogging website’ that had disrupted services for its users.
Shortly after the outage, Twitter said on its status page that it was facing an elevated number of application programming interface errors, and a set of protocols for building and integrating application software.
As expected, the outage affected Twitter shares negatively.
Takeover controversy
Following months of chaos and controversy between Billionaire Elon Musk and social media giant Twitter, the Tesla CEO finally closed the Twitter $44 billion takeover in October.
The Twitter purchase comes after a majority of Twitter Inc’s shareholders voted in favour of the social media company’s $44 billion sale to Musk.
In November, Musk announced that he wants to charge $8 dollars a month for Twitter’s Blue Service which includes the verified blue tick next to one’s handle.
The social media company already charges around $5 a month for its Twitter Blue service in select regions including the United States that allows access to premium features including editing or undoing tweets.
It would cost South African users almost R150 a month.
Earlier this week, Musk said he will step down as chief executive of Twitter after finding a replacement.
Suspend accounts
In December, Mask suspended accounts of several journalists after he accused them of endangering his family.
The accounts of high-profile journalists including Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster had all been suspended.
Hours after the suspensions, Musk faced off with one of the journalists he suspended in a Twitter Space audio discussion before an audience of more than 30,000 listeners.
The discussion revolved around the suspension of numerous journalists.
The suspended journalist, along with several others, found a backdoor way onto the platform through the website’s audio function.
The audio discussion and the Twitter’s Spaces feature was abruptly shut down after Musk exited the conversation.
The suspended accounts were later reinstated, but some said the billionaire offered full use of the platform only if they deleted posts about tracking his location.
Musk had drawn anger and warnings from the European Union and United Nations after suspending the accounts.
On December 02, Twitter suspended the account of Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, just two months after it was reinstated.
His account was suspended after rapper allegedly violated the platform’s rules prohibiting incitement to violence.
Ye’s account showed a notice that it was suspended, after one of his posts had earlier appeared to show a swastika symbol inside a Star of David.
Musk’s chaotic tenure as owner of Twitter
Square Kilometre Array
The next phase of the construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) has alsready gotten under way in the Northern Cape.
Science and Technology minister Blade Nzimande did the sod-turning of the SKA’s next 133 telescopes that will be erected over the next few years.
A similar ceremony was held in Australia.
Here in South Africa, the 67 telescopes that make up the MeerKAT, the frontrunner to the SKA, has already delivered beyond scientists’ wildest dreams.
Construction of the next phase of the Square Kilometre Array
Inaugural Green Hydrogen Summit continues in Cape Town
President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s Green Hydrogen Energy project will create jobs, attract investment and bring development to rural provinces, and support a just transition to cleaner energy.
Ramaphosa said this during his opening address at the two-day inaugural Green Hydrogen Summit in Cape Town.
The SA Green Hydrogen Summit showcases the country’s offering as a large-scale, low cost, world-class green hydrogen production hub and total value chain investment destination.
Green hydrogen involves the extraction of hydrogen from water using solar or wind energy.
The video below is reporting more on the story
World Science Forum
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the use of science for social justice requires committed International Cooperation.
The President addressed the World Science Forum underway in Cape Town.
President Ramaphosa also emphasised the importance of investment in African Science.
The World Science Forum was held at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town.
During the event, leading scientists, decision-makers from the world of politics, industry, representatives of civil society and the media express their views on the new challenges facing science.
Since its inception, it has been organised in Hungary, Brazil, and Jordan.
South Africa is the first country on the African continent to host the WSF.
World Science Forum expresses views on challenges facing science
SABC launches its new streaming platform
SABC’s new streaming platform SABC+ was launched just before the World Cup in Qatar. It’s a collaboration with the connectivity giant, Telkom as it is exiting the streaming business.
It has handed over its TelkomOne platform, which was launched in 2020 to the SABC.
The Communications Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni delivered the keynote address during the launch.
.-Additional reporting by Reuters
The video is the live stream on the proceedings:
