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Educational campaign to accompany IEC online reporting platform

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The Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Sy Mamabolo says there will be an educational campaign for citizens that will be going hand-in-hand with its newly-launched online reporting platform for digital disinformation.

The IEC and Media Monitor SA have partnered to establish a digital platform that users can use to report misinformation as the country heads to national elections.

Mamabolo says the platform will have the complaints on the site and show the progress of the complaint. He spoke to the SABC in Centurion, on the sidelines of the media briefing.

“We will be using social media ourselves to ensure that the message reaches out to at least majority of South Africans. The issue is not to monitor every little post on social media, but to deal with postings that have a bearing in terms of intentional false information, which is aimed at distorting the outcome of the  elections. That’s exactly where the focus is.”

Mamabolo says this initiative may not be a solution that will deal with misinformation. However, it is one step towards dealing with misinformation ahead of the May elections.

“It will give us the basis to fortify, but it will also give us the capacity to understand disinformation on social media as it relates to elections to give us the insights that we need to plan for the future. It will also have some impact on the presently unfolding electoral process in the country.”

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