AKA’s death biggest story on social media as ‘digilantism’ dominates

The death of  Kiernan “AKA” Forbes is the biggest story on social media since the Oscar Pistorius trial in 2014.

Analysing social media posts, Acumen Media said there were more than 217,000 mentions in South Africa alone, and more than 1.4-million engagements on his death.

“The nation woke up to the news that one of its biggest celebrities had been gunned down while exiting a club on Florida Road in Durban. AKA and his friend Tibz had been assassinated. Social media, the great truth seeker, immediately identified that the deaths were not random, and this was not an ordinary drive-by shooting,” said Acumen social media analyst Tonya Khoury.

Social media users debated whether AKA's friend, chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, was hit “by mistake” as #Tibz became a hashtag.

#Anele trended when social media users made reference to Forbes’ girlfriend, Anele Tembe, who died in Cape Town in April 2021.

#FloridaRoad, #SAInvestigates and #DonDesign were also hashtags used when social media uses discussed AKA’s death.

“Social media is the truth seeker. They solve crimes because the police can’t. A lot of it goes down rabbit holes but in general they have good intentions at heart. In this instance even a celeb said South Africans rather investigate this murder than bring police into it,” said Khoury.

KwaZulu-Natal National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (Nemisa) CoLab director at the Durban University of Technology, Prof Colin Thakur, said “digilantism” could be dangerous.

“Crime is already out of control in our country. The murder of a star, protected by a bodyguard, is an unfortunate validation of this assertion. The shock and fear of missing out persuaded internet users to share and consume much more than they should. The sordid public nature of the deed provoked the vigilante in people. They wanted to assist and find the culprits by becoming online detectives. This is called digilantism.

“The danger is that people, however well-intentioned, take the law into their hands to try to identify the murderers. It is as dangerous as vigilantism. We appeal for calm to allow the police to do the work and allow the family space to grieve appropriately,” he said.

Thakur said AKA was an African and international star and this helped elevate the social media trend.

“As Nemisa and the KZN CoLab, we empathise with the outpouring of anger and sadness on social media. We understand and share the grief. However, we are obliged to remind the nation that sharing CCTV video footage of the murder is immoral as it compounds and perpetuates the grief of AKA’s family.

“It is also illegal as this will violate the privacy of the family. We believe sharing the video is irresponsible as it will hurt the investigation process, which we are sure is not the intention.”

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