By Kavisha Pillay
Fact. There is no "white genocide" in South Africa.
Fact. Apartheid was a crime against humanity, no matter how much revisionists try to gaslight us into believing otherwise.
Fact. Farm murders happen, but there is zero evidence that white farmers are being disproportionately targeted.
Fact. Apartheid-era land policies, such as the 1913 Natives Land Act and the Group Areas Act, forcibly ripped black South Africans from their land, stripping them of generational wealth and entrenching economic disparities that still shape South Africa today.
Fact. AfriForum and Solidarity are deliberately spreading dangerous disinformation in an attempt to polarise our society.
Fact. Some people don’t really care about facts, because disinformation spreads faster, especially when amplified by billionaires and politicians.
The rise of a manufactured crisis
For months, South Africa’s information ecosystem has been flooded with misinformation and outright lies about land reform. My feeds have been clogged with claims that during apartheid people were "more prosperous," alongside outright denials that apartheid was a crime against humanity.
Driving the outrage machine was the recent signing of the Land Expropriation Act by President Cyril Ramaphosa in January 2025.
And while the facts don’t matter to some, let’s be clear, the Expropriation Act is not a radical land seizure policy. It allows for land expropriation without compensation, only in the public interest, a principle that exists in nearly every democratic country in the world.
Yet, a well-orchestrated network of far-right groups, influencers, and media figures has hijacked the narrative, turning a legal and constitutional process into a global fear campaign.
According to the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change, in just 18 days, over 450,000 mentions related to the Expropriation Act flooded X (formerly Twitter).
This wasn’t organic concern, it was a coordinated effort, spearheaded by AfriForum, Solidarity, and a global network of far-right influencers, designed to create panic, division, and international condemnation of South Africa.
Who’s behind the lies?
The campaign to spread disinformation on social media isn’t led by ordinary South Africans concerned about their property. The loudest voices are ideologically driven propagandists, right-wing media figures, and billionaires with a vested interest in chaos.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk, 208 million X followers) amplified misleading claims, by saying that South Africa has “openly racist ownership laws.” His tweet was seen by tens of millions, yet received no Community Notes.
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump, 87 million X followers) signed an executive order cutting U.S. aid to South Africa, citing land confiscations, despite zero expropriations taking place.
Conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones, 2.2 million X followers) claimed that “white South Africans are being openly targeted for genocide”. No Community Notes were added.
Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray, 750,000 followers) noted that “White South African farmers are already banned from exporting their produce to the EU and UK on account of being “too white.” Again, no Community Notes were added.
Community Notes is a crowd-sourced fact-checking system on X that allows users to add context to potentially misleading posts, with visibility determined by ratings from a diverse group of contributors. X’s Community Notes system failed to flag misleading posts related to South Africa's land reform policies, highlighting the danger of outsourcing truth to an unreliable, crowd-sourced model rather than deploying professional fact-checkers to do their jobs.
This is precisely why Meta’s recent decision to shift to a Community Notes-style system should be treated with deep skepticism.
Beyond the inflammatory posts from high profile disinformers, AfriForum and Solidarity leveraged Meta’s advertising system to micro-target the public with false claims, a tactic that makes disinformation even more insidious. Over the last 90 days, these groups spent significant amounts on paid ads designed to stoke racial paranoia and manipulate public perception. AfriForum pumped R111,789 into Meta ads, spreading messages like “The ANC wants to take your land. Your property is at risk,” with an estimated reach of over 1 million people per advert. AfriForum targeted individuals who engaged with posts related to the following topics:
Meanwhile, Solidarity spent R53,768 on ads claiming, “Solidarity is taking real people’s votes to the White House,” also reaching over a million users per advert. Solidarity targeted adverts towards demographics such as teachers, principles, and parents.
The danger of microtargeting lies in its ability to deliver tailor-made disinformation to specific audiences, reinforcing biases, fears, and grievances in ways that traditional media cannot match. These ads don’t just spread false information, they create personalised echo chambers, where recipients are fed narratives designed to radicalise, divide, and mobilise them for political purposes.
The unchecked spread of dangerous disinformation is becoming a direct threat to democracy, social stability, and human rights. When billionaires like Elon Musk can amplify baseless hysteria to millions with zero consequences, democracy is at risk. When right wing lobby groups can buy micro targeted ads to manipulate public fear, national policy is at risk. When heads of state can base foreign policy on outright lies, global stability is at risk.
We need accountability
Social media companies are not neutral platforms, they are profit-driven entities that knowingly amplify disinformation, because outrage fuels engagement and engagement drives revenue. They have the power to act, but time and again, they have refused to take meaningful responsibility. If they will not regulate themselves, they must be regulated by law.
If we continue to allow disinformation to spread unchecked, we are handing power to the loudest liars, the wealthiest manipulators, and the most dangerous extremists. We are ceding control over truth itself to those who have no regard for reality.
The time for half-measures is over. It is time to criminalise dangerous disinformation and hold platforms accountable.
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