How South Africans used the web to fight back against Trump's 'shithole' comment

South Africans lashed out online against Donald Trump's "shithole" comment - so much so that it was among the top five countries in the world to vent at the US president.

Media monitoring firm ROi Africa managing director Tonya Khoury said the United States‚ United Kingdom‚ Nigeria‚ South Africa and Canada were the top five countries to react to Trump‚ who allegedly questioned why America should take in immigrants from "shithole" places like Haiti and countries from Africa.

Globally‚ posts relating to Trump's comment generated an interest of up to 149-billion views or reads.

"The whole world reacted from a political stance‚ the United Nations condemned the comments and many countries wrote official letters demanding an explanation for his behaviour. Although the corporate and government worlds’ reaction is commendable‚ none was more vocal than social media‚" said Khoury.

"It started with comedians and newsroom snippets circulating on social media and then the #shithole countries' social media communities started to rise up‚" she explained.

The largely negative story turned completely on its head when communities took the tongue-in-cheek approach by posting beautiful pictures - the most noteworthy being from Namibia‚ Haiti and South Africa - to show their "shithole" country.

"The beautiful images went viral across the world completely debunking Trump’s comment‚" said Khoury.