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South Africans have boycotted a call to skip social media use for a day to protest against high data costs, which has ironically seen #SocialMediaBlackout trend on twitter.
Musician and activist Ntsiki Mazwai had urged South Africans to log off and not buy data to pressure mobile providers, according to a BBC report.
“Data costs are obscene and are not affordable for people on the ground. We want to bring attention to this issue; we want to engage government and cellular network companies,” BBC quotes Mazwai to have said.
Discontent over internet service charges in the country last year led to the #DataMustFall campaign.
But it appears that many users could not help but check their social media accounts despite the boycott plea by activist Mazwai.
https://twitter.com/sekwakwariri/status/877157170286141440
Tomorrow South Africans will login to check if people are really taking part in the #SocialMediaBlackout pic.twitter.com/Cx524bi9VX
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— BERNECIA (@Bernecia) June 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/16Mochini/status/877436659155034113
The fact that #socialmediablackout is trending is too ironic for words.
— Melissa Attree (@MelAttree) June 21, 2017
However, Internet analyst Arthur Goldstuck told Fin24 that although the campaign had fallen short, “in one respect the trend has highlighted the consumers’ frustration in dealing with the high cost of data”.
Amid public anger over the issue, South African President Jacob Zuma at this year’s State of the Union address said “lowering of the cost of data is uppermost in our policies and plans”.
Globally, the report states, South Africa is mid-ranking when it comes to data prices: expensive compared with many European countries but cheap compared with the rest of Africa, compared to especially Nigeria.
In its annual report, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ranks South Africa as 85th out of 178 countries for mobile broadband prices, based on 500 MB of pre-paid mobile data.
The ITU puts the monthly cost of mobile broadband prices at $7.76 in South Africa. Nigeria occupies 130th position with the monthly cost of mobile broadband prices at $10.91.
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