Zimbabwean musician Tytan castigates irresponsible social media platforms

February 28, 2020
| Report Focus News

The Zimbabwean musician and manager who was propelled to stardom and became a household name (Tytan) after producing a number of hits and the memorable duet with Ammara Brown on a song titled Mukoko. Has spoken about how Zimbabwean run/owed social media platforms are fanning and stoking toxic flames following his divorce.

Speaking to Report Focus News Nyabulo Mayibongwe Nkomo who is popularly known as Tytan said he was dismayed by how socially irresponsible some of the people have become on social media platforms. Tytan took aim at the toxic way in which those that have influential social media platforms have stoked up hate and division amongst the Zimbabwean community following his divorce.

Tytan also took time to address an issue which he said was important to clarify with regards Stephenie Chiyangwa.

“It has come to my attention that my ex wife has made damaging, false and defamatory allegations against my Pastor Friend Stephanie Chiyangwa. I would like to put it on record that Stephanie Chiyangwa is a Pastor and a friend who I have known for over 10 years. Pastor Stephanie is a married woman, who has been nothing but supportive to me and also my ex wife. She provided counselling to myself and also had supportive conversations with my ex wife, where she offered her advise and counselled her during the trying times in our marriage. Pastor Stephanie Chiyangwa is one of the few people that advocated for my ex/wife and I to try to work things out. My wife and I are public figures and therefore what we choose to say about each other publicly is our choice, however, it is important to make sure we do not tarnish innocent people’s reputations and also for us to respect other people’s marriages and lives. Unhealthy obsessions and jealousy can easily be turned into cyber bullying and defamation. So I would like to publicly offer my sincerest apologies to the woman of God.”

There has been a rapid increase in cyber bullying on social media particularly amongst Zimbabweans with people posting anything and everything from derogatory comments to insults and some even calling for and instigated and agitating violence.

Currently, social media firms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter operate as hosts, rather than publishers, in the UK. As such, they are exempt from being held legally liable for user-generated content if they act to remove content when notified.

Social media platforms can be used by people anonymously or with fake profiles, with little in the way of verification. At the same time, harassment from other jurisdictions makes prosecution of offenders difficult. But all this is fast coming to an end. Recently the EU warned tech firms that they must remove hate speech and extremist content faster, or face regulation, requiring greater use of automatic detection systems.