Author: Toby Shapshak

They were clearly fake Twitter accounts. It’s the string of meaningless numbers in that name that gives it away, sparky, you want to tell the trolls who create them. Created the same month, with no followers and an incongruous profile picture, I reported them to Twitter, then blocked them. The only time I am followed by numerous, patently fake accounts on Twitter is whenever I write about ANC politicians, as I did in October about Minerals & energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s bizarre behaviour when climate envoys came to the country offering vast sums of money to help save the planet.…

The Twitterverse was abuzz this week when Jack Dorsey has resigned as CEO of Twitter. As befits the platform and the man who made the fist tweet, he tweeted on Monday: “not sure anyone has heard but, I resigned from Twitter”. It was a huge surprise, but one that saw Twitter’s stock bounce 11%. I never know whether that is a vote of confidence or derision, when the founding CEO resigns. Dorsey’s bold move, including a wholehearted endorsement of his successor, current chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. At 37, he is the youngest CEO of a major tech firm, younger by a…

Things have just gotten very real for Facebook, as the first two significant lawsuits have been filled since whistle-blower Frances Haugen’s bombshell revelations. “Facebook said it was looking out for our children and weeding out online trolls, but in reality was creating misery and divisiveness for profit. We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product and we are being used against each other out of greed,” said Ohio attorney general Dave Yost in the first case. He’s acting for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, who were among the Facebook investors that collectively lost more than $100bn…

So, World Rugby has shot the messenger. Rassie Erasmus’s now infamous video pointing out the myriad faults of referee Nic Berry in the first Test against the Irish and British Lions has seen him severely punished for bringing the game into disrepute. Known for being amazingly innovative with his coaching, this arguably wasn’t Erasmus’ best attempt at trying something different. The 62-minute leaked video of the Springbok director of rugby pointing out 36 errors by the Australia ref and the touch judges was the subject of a World Rugby disciplinary process that has seen Erasmus banned for 10 months. Think…

As investments lead for Flourish in Africa, Ameya Upadhyay has been helping build African unicorns for a decade. His acumen is as impressive as his success rate, including notable startups like Flutterwave and Lidya (listen here). He tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about “baking” an African unicorn – which he has done multiple times. His insights into investing in Africa, especially in fintech, are a master class. Also available on Apple podcasts | Google podcasts | Spotify Visit getshyft.co.za for more info.

Arguably the most important first step in digital and financial inclusion is getting people online in the first place. The largest provider of free public wifi in sub-Saharan Africa is BRCK, a truly remarkable Kenyan start-up that has grown from its revolutionary first BRCK v1 to a SupaBRCK to connect rural villages in Rwanda to its brilliant Moja free public wifi. Co-founder Erik Hersman, who also co-launched renowned tech firm Ushahidi and the iHub in Nairobi, tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about why the internet should always be free. Also available on Apple podcasts | Google podcasts | Spotify…

“Lights stay on” the headline read on a street pole last week. South Africa is so entrapped by Eskom’s broken power supply that it’s now newsworthy when there isn’t any load shedding. I thought of that street pole headline when news broke that the Independent Communications Regulator of SA (Icasa) had convinced Telkom, MTN and Vodacom to drop their impending lawsuits over spectrum allocation. This is in fact the second time in a year that Icasa has convinced angry mobile operators to back down from their legal high horses – when it attempted to auction off spectrum this March but…

If you didn’t already know the future of internet connectivity involved fibre, this month’s massive R13.2bn deal between Vodacom and Remgro to combine their fibre offerings into a new infrastructure company should be enough confirmation. Vodacom will combine its fibre assets – worth R4.3bn – with that of Remgro’s 57% owned Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), which will combine its Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel into the new InfraCo venture. Vodacom is injecting R6bn in cash, and will hold 30% of the new company, with an option to acquire another 10%. This kind of consolidation is part of a global…

Any doubt that Facebook wasn’t aware of what it was doing and the consequences of its “growth over safety” strategy have been blown away by the Facebook Papers. This trove of internal documents revealed by whistle-blower Frances Haugen shows that the social giant’s leadership knew what they were doing. If they didn’t, they were deliberately not reading their internal research and shocking findings. The Facebook Papers have been widely reported on by numerous news organisations, laying bare just how damaging Facebook’s apps and out of control hate speech and misinformation are to youngsters’ mental health. Facebook “went a little too…

How do you explain what the Covid-19 vaccine does to defeat the virus and help convince sceptics that vaccination is not only a good thing, but also safe? Like every other rational South African adult, I have been double vaccinated. But I am astounded at the flimsy, unscientific excuses from anti-vaxxers about why they refuse to take a vaccine that could save their lives – and prevent them from infecting other people. Madhav Sarda, a psychiatrist who works in medical education at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada tweeted a brilliant and funny explanation. He describes himself as being “in medical…