Would you believe that Google went into my #GoogleDrive and removed one of my videos because they said its contents “violated Google Drive’s Misleading Content Policy”.
Surely they’re not allowed to do that? I pay for a secure Drive that I thought was private and ‘unhackable’. Are Google allowed to read my personal and business files? If they are, why aren’t they using this technology to catch paedophiles instead of stealing my videos?
If you knew the week I’ve had, it would make a good man bad. That’s a line from a Smiths’ song that I’ve just butchered. As usual, I’m watching headlines as I write. It’s the 70th anniversary of the #FreedomCharter and it’s also the day the President removed #Whitfield as deputy minister of trade and industry.
#Whitfield is a #DACrook, according to cupcake. And #NotSoJumpingJohn is fuming; he told the Prez to sweep his own floor before he sweeps the DA’s. I think we can concur if there is a broom in Parly let’s put it to good use. Mop ‘em up. The lot of them.
Bloated cabinet
The bloated cabinet: take out Gwede #PhuzaFace Mantashe, tell uBaba that we all know that he’s laundering money through filibustering Dali’s set of lawyers. That’s what I can write easily, without fear. That’s because I have “freedom of speech”.
But it’s selective because the second I talk about #YouKnowWho (the #DoubleBeez), then Google and other media go on the hunt, snoop into my computer and change my data like a real cyber-bully or a hacker who has been in the room the entire time.
I’ve met cyber bullies, lots of them and this week was no different. I’ve learnt to use that trick: “#LetThem and #LetMe.” But when Google steals your files … that’s a bit Eddie Snowden, isn’t it? #GoogleHasMyVideo.
Media monitor 30 years
I’ve been a media monitor for 30 years; I’ve read more headlines than you’ve had deadlines. This column is at least 10 years old, maybe more. It was born when Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, and he received more publicity than the FIFA World Cup. I wrote the headline: “Pistorius is bigger than the World Cup”. I backed up my statement with a no frills pie chart that extracted articles from a media pool of 100 million online news and social media platforms in over 140 countries.
That story made headlines across the world because it made for fascinating statistics. Today, not much has changed, except I dropped the pie charts. I thought they were lame, but I can’t write this column without the data. The data is why my column exists. I source data and I read it, and interpret it. That’s my real job.
I read everything the media has said about your company and then I tell you what the public perception and sentiment is. I can tell if they like and trust you, or if they don’t. Perhaps there are some kudos or kinks in your reputation that you don’t know about? Acumen Media will help you identify the big topics and then, after we separate the signal from the noise, we tell you, in no uncertain terms, what we believe is happening in your backyard.
Shoot straight from the hip in plain English
And more often than not it’s the truth. And we shoot straight from the hip in plain English because if we don’t say it like it is, without the jargon and the frills, you will continue to mess up.
So that’s who I am: a media analyst without a filter. Some may not like what I say and that’s exactly the reason I exist. We are meant to have uncomfortable conversations. #StraightTalker
Since I was hacked by Google, I became very curious: are there other people like me? My bad a$$ machine tells me that there have been over 317 million data breach conversations over the past year, at least 43.7% of them are highly negative conversations. That’s enormous. So, I guess I’m not alone. #GoogleHasOurVideos. But not our soul.
What we didn’t read
I’ve digressed. #ScratchTheSurface this week could focus on the #FreedomCharter which got 2 700 results, or we could measure #INActionSA’s refusal to vote in the motion of #NoConfidence in the #JHBMayor saga, which generated 1 900 results.
I’d also like to cover #SOPA which generated less than 2 000 results. And I’m particularly horrified at the latest death toll of 101 in #ECFloods, and how after watching men with long sticks dragging the rivers for bodies of our dead, the disaster only got 4 500 results.
Perhaps you’d like to read about the late great #Feya, the jazz musician who generated less than 1 000 posts. Or should we talk about the #NationalChat that Rama wants us to have. The one where he is trying to fit the whole of South Africa into a boardroom.
Sadly, he didn’t call Acumen Media because we have the entire nation’s conversation grouped into clusters of focus points, accessible with a click of a button, instantly. But that story only generated 20 000results. We should talk about the #G20Summit that brought back an eye watering 9 700 results.
But Trump losing his temper…
Up in Africa, maybe we should focus on the carnage going on in #Kenya in the one-year anniversary of the exact same thing as last year. History repeating itself didn’t make a massive impact on the machine here in South Africa. That situation only gets 15 000 results.
I could measure the Belarusian tourist who picked up a child and slammed him to the floor and almost killed him for no reason other than that he was brown. The results are less than a thousand for that story.
When I ask my machine to measure all these against Trump losing his temper with #YouKnowWho and I tell the machine ONLY to look at South Africa’s conversation, then this happens: Over 300 000 items, with an engagement of over 450 000 in less than seven days. Of that 60% is negative, and less than 5% carries a positive sentiment.
So, I guess, to be fair to the country, that is the biggest story in South Africa this week.
Dark humour
This column has morphed over time. It used to be an unbiased set of pie charts and then my personality brought with it a touch of satire and dark humour, but for the most part, it’s the time I get to spew everything I’ve consumed in the week.
Some of my clients use it to understand what the national sentiment is on massive issues like #Elections or #Covid or the rape of a child we called #CweCwe. There have been times when our data has been used by the HSRC and the President himself during a time when the world had gone mad.
This tiny column is used by smart businesses to read the South African room temperature.
Launching your new range of tekkies during a pending nuclear war week is probably not a great idea, but if you’ve got dead rats in your closet that you have to dump in the PR world, then we probably won’t care that you didn’t file you taxes on time, Mr CEO.
Banned forever
The Acumen video that Google stole was the proof of why I felt a certain way about an issue. I would have backed it up with proof, and that proof was sourced mostly from credible news outlets on YouTube. The very same YouTube that has now banned Acumen Media’s account. Forever. No review, no jail time or parole, just cut off completely.
Whereas with TikTok, you’ll find that every video is flying, not only on my personal page but also on our business pages. #SelectiveFreedomOfSpeech.
But I’m back, despite the cyber bullying. You see, I won’t be bullied, I’d rather get banned than not tell you what happened in Gaza this week while you were watching fireworks in Iran. Every single day 70 to 90 Palestinians were shot queuing for food. Some were shot in the back of the head for wanting a loaf of bread.
Back to Gaza
Ten aid trucks broke through in the north. I saw babies looking like skeletons, a child who had her leg amputated without anaesthesia. Even the screams in the battered hospitals have become too much for hardened reporters to bear.
And all the while we’ve been watching Trump taking a family photo with #NATO (45k); telling The Izzees to turn their planes around and dropping an F Bomb (100k); bombing Iran (70k); a ceasefire (29k); and the revolting Epstein list (11.6K).
So that’s how and why I exist in this piece of weekly ramblings: read it, listen to it, watch it, or don’t. I’m here most Fridays and I’ll continue to show up, with or without Google and YouTube.
Thank you for allowing me the time to explain why I read the news so you don’t have to, and allowing me a moment to talk about my business more and my rantings less.
I’m Tonya Khoury, I’m a #StraightTalker and thank you for scratching the surface with me and Acumen Media.
