Technology has without doubt changed the way we live. Our consumption habits have altered in ways not seen before. While much of this must be welcomed, we dare not throw caution to the wind when it comes to what we consume, or the type of conduct we encourage.
In the broader communication ecosystem, a proliferation of gadgets meant readers became writers, just as listeners and viewers transmogrified into unregulated overnight broadcasters. Armed with the anonymity social media affords, what appeared a blessing quickly became a cesspool of disinformation and toxic messaging — a home to sexists and bigoted types.
It is in this blessing-turned-curse space we find one MacGyver Mukwevho, known to his followers as MacG — an uncouth podcaster who is taking advantage of the regulation-free environment in which stereotyping passes for mere controversy and misogyny is a badge of honour.
To say the law of the jungle applies on YouTube and social media is to state the obvious. Those who game the system resort to the most bizarre — and eschew truth for anything that drops jaws. The tsars are intentionally acerbic and seek to upset society’s sensibilities. Among them, MacG is an overlord.
Dlamini and others before her are victims — not of MacG and his psychosocial problems but of a system supported by corporates who have no shame putting their brands next to loudmouths intent on destroying lives, peeing on our constitutional rights
My interest is not in whether he and his hangers-on were rude to television personality Minnie Dlamini, or even why it is Dlamini’s duty to “keep a relationship” with anyone. Dlamini has one life to live to the fullest, and owes no-one an explanation when she effects changes to it. My issue is who and what has enabled this insidious and virulent ecosystem to become and remain.
The matter of the regulatory environment is an obvious one, and should have been attended to long ago. It can’t be correct that some are allowed to mimic the traditional media and spew a tapestry of lies and insults behind a veil of anonymity — all the while drunk on hatred, misogyny, racism and whatever else — while other media must contend with the Press Council or the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA).
What’s good for the geese, they say, must also be good for MacG and his type. That the politicians have belatedly woken up to this toxic cesspool must be welcomed. Better late than never. The regulatory reset is overdue.
Yet what we don’t talk about much is why ordinary viewers, especially the youth, move away from television to YouTube. And why some corporates have put their money on these platforms. The answer to the first is simple: viewers follow what shocks them; it’s an entrancing drug.
In the absence of regulations, the lines within which MacG and his type operate remain far apart. For them, truth, credibility and respect for people’s dignity remain optional extras, while these are the mainstay of traditional media operations. The Press Code is the lodestar for those of us in newspapers.
But for the MacGs, sticking to a code means being normal, which translates to reduced clicks online. This also means reduced revenue. The more venom they unleash, the more clicks they get — and the more support they get from corporates in the form of advertising. Hard-nosed businesspeople will say they don’t care much about regulations and the paucity of morality online. All they need are clicks to expose their products to as many eyeballs as possible. The occasional gnashing of teeth is par for the course, they would argue.
This, of course, until they are personally subjected to commentary by the likes of MacG or controversial blogger Musa Khawula — who is apparently now in jail.
While individuals may respond to the shock, corporates have a higher duty to consider what sort of society they want to help build. They can’t wax lyrical about the importance of environmental, social and governance matters on the one hand, while propping up chaos and laws of the jungle on the other.
As I see it, Dlamini and others before her are victims — not of MacG and his psychosocial problems but of a system supported by corporates who have no shame putting their brands next to loudmouths intent on destroying lives, peeing on our constitutional rights. As a country, we must confront the hard truths about how a MacG is enabled by so-called good corporate citizens. This must not be countenanced.
The point is not that return on investment must be discarded, but simply that business must approach this with a level of nous. It must cast an eye on what it is encouraging; the ecosystem it is helping to build. Condemning the insults — which we won’t repeat because we are sensible people — while financially supporting MacG is counterproductive. This asymmetry is what has given him the arrogance to believe he is “uncancellable”.
My point is not that he must be cancelled, but that he must not be financially supported until he behaves like a sensible, responsible member of society.
Politicians, too, must know it is insufficient to promise bromides and to summon this obnoxious boor to parliament. Doing right by Dlamini means fast-tracking processes to ensure podcasters are subject to the BCCSA codes of good practice. When politicians want something badly enough, they pull out all the stops to ensure they accomplish their goals. The pace with which they killed off the Scorpions anti-corruption unit attached to the National Prosecuting Authority is one example.
Let’s see them ensure decency online and spare us the ignominy of more MacG comments that lead to a gnashing of teeth. Hopefully, MacG might one day address the debt-to-GDP ratio (facetious, I know) that has become the bane of our existence, and so contribute to something worthwhile. The corporates fuelling his hate-filled commentary, meanwhile, must hang their heads in shame.
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