Chief Charumbira Calls For Measures To Control Fake Social Media Accounts

Another day, another politician complaining about social media and its impact. Chief Fortune Charumbira asked Deputy information minister, Energy Mutodi what the government is doing in response to fake social media accounts.

The question was asked in the Senate as Charumbira said he was a victim of these fake accounts, with a fake account created in his name proceeding to criticise President Mnangagwa.

Hon. Mutodi explained to the Chief that this is not unique to Zimbabwe and many other countries are facing the same issue:

It is not only happening in Zimbabwe. In the United States, 11% of social media accounts are fake and some have been used for fraudulent criminal activities. In Zimbabwe, we face a serious situation of these fake accounts because popular individuals like the Head of State and Government, the army, the Central Intelligence Organisation or chiefs are used to peddle lies through those fake accounts as if they have said something.

Honourable Energy Mutodi

Whilst Mutodi went on to say the proposed Cyber bill will address this, he admitted that such laws will be hard to enforce which is true. Twitter accounts are hard to trace back to their owners in real life, thus there aren’t many ways of actually resolving that particular issue. The best Chief Charumbira can do in the meanwhile is to publicly distance himself from that account as he has and hope that people get the message.