Cassper slams cyber activism: You can’t change the world through a tweet

After taking a mini break from Twitter, rapper Cassper Nyovest came back with a message for all the Twitter activists in the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter online campaigns fuelled by the recent death of George Floyd due to police brutality in America.

The rapper reminded people that more needed to be done. Cassper reasoned that the nature of social media, particularly Twitter, was counterproductive when it came to dissecting anything complex.

“Time and again we get on these social media platforms to explain ourselves to people who don't want to understand us. If we ever meet in person, we will get to know each other. These platforms are too shallow to dissect anything complex.

“You can't change the world through a tweet,” he said.

While the rapper's aim may have been to motivate people to do more than just tweet their frustrations at the current state of affairs, many chose to interpret his tweet to be anti-activism at large.

“For a person in the spotlight, influence and huge following, tweets can actually do a lot. Imagine if most celebs tweeted and called out the SANDF for the murder of Collins Khosa, tweets can mobilise the masses,” one tweep said.

“I disagree with the last part. You can change the world with just a tweet. Look at @akreana ... That 'O Jewa Keng' tweet changed a lot of people's lives. People got hired and others got fed,” said another tweep.

However those who understood where Cassper was going with his tweet supported him and added that they planned to do more than just type a couple of characters on Twitter with the hope of changing the world.

Cassper himself joined millions of people around the world on Twitter, showing their solidarity with the message that black lives matter.