Getting closer: ANCYL and Twitter

The ANC Youth League is going to call for the closure of Twitter.

Or, the “closer”, as it is written in their press release, but let’s not get too hung up on spelling. They are, after all, very upset, so a few errors are bound to creep in.

Why? Because a few rogue internet users, or “computer hackers”, as they are called in the press release, have taken it upon themselves to start a few Twitter accounts using the name of Julius Malema. These mysterious tweeters are guilty of “recurrently posting misleading messages”.

These messages take the form of such profundities as “Gov speaks pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey but can’t decipher it. To make a point, u must toyi-toyi” (tweeted by @Julius_S_Malema) and “We are not scared of debate even on complex matters we do not understand. That is what it means to be an activist…” (@Jmalema).

If the authorities do not act on this, they will “now approach the relevant authorities to report these hackers and call for the closer of twitter if its administrators are not able to administer reports for violation of basic human rights and integrity”, says the league. I can’t wait for that battle.

It’s easy to see how it happened. Julius Malema is, after all, one of our most quoted politicians and, seeing that he is absent from the twitterverse, people were bound to try and fill the gap. Its just not the same without Julius.

Maybe they think that these tweeters will steal their thunder? I’m not so sure. You’d be hard-pressed to come up with turns of phrase that could rival the ANCYL press office attempts, or the bon mots of the president himself. “Bloody agent”? “A rubbish in your trouser”? SO catchy. I’m sure you repeat them all the time.

Whatever the reasons, if these pranksters refuse to heed these warnings, “the laws of this country will come very hard on them”.

It doesn’t really bear thinking about.