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Political issues dominating Twitter discussions in Africa
The continent’s use of social media for political debate surpassed UK and US, according to Portland’s analysis.
Portland analysed 1.6 billion geo-location tweets and top 5,000 hashtags on the continent and found that the top political hashtag in Africa focused on the continent’s highest profile election - #NigeriaDecides.
However, the use of social media in this field is increasingly coming under threat from African governments.
Governments are blocking social media on elections day citing security concerns.
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In Congo, officials said they were trying to prevent the “illegal publication of reults,” while in Uganda, President Yweri Musevenis said social media was blocked to “stop spreading lies.”
Security officials in Ghana are considering blocking social media on election day to the dismay of many.
Entertainment dominated the conversation in 2015, representing 20 percent of all hashtags, but political discussion grew by 10 percent.
Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Burundi and Egypt were the most active in these political conversations.
The report also found that interest in politics transcends national borders. For example, hashtags about the Nigerian Presidential Elections and strife in Burundi were among some of the most popular and widespread hashtags across Africa.
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Egypt tweets the most out of any country in Africa, with 28% of all geolocated Twitter volume (amounting to 500 million tweets). Nigeria (360 million geolocated tweets), South Africa (325 million geolocated tweets), Kenya (125 million geolocated tweets) and Ghana (70 million geolocated tweets) round out the top five tweeting African countries. Overall, there were 1.86 billion geolocated tweets in Africa in 2015 – a 34-fold increase from our initial research in 2012.
“Our previous studies showed that Twitter in Africa was much more of a space for social interaction or frivolous banter. This study, our third, demonstrates that the platform is coming of age with the prevalence of serious debate about politics and government,” says Mark Flanagan, Portland’s Senior Partner for Content and Digital Strategy.
“Excitingly, our report also hints at the coming together of Africans across boundaries to comment on and discuss common issues. How to successfully engage with these emerging pan-African online communities represents a challenge for all brands and organisations seeking to build their presence in this space,” added Allan Kamau, who leads Portland’s Nairobi office.
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