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Folks searched for FaceApp twice as much as they did for Mandela Day, on Mandela Day

This week South Africa celebrated Mandela Day on the day of the late former president’s birthday.

The day sees South Africans taking part in charitable events as a way to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela.

Online, however, South Africans were seemingly more concerned about FaceApp than they were with Mandela Day, at least according to Google South Africa.

“South Africans generated more than 100 000 search queries for ‘Face App’ on Wednesday, while only generating 50 000 for ‘Mandela Day’. The Internet went crazy over the two-year-old app, which uses artificial intelligence to create a rendering of what users might look like in a few decades,” said the local arm of the international firm.

The influx of searches for FaceApp are likely due to fears being stoked that the app is siphoning off personal data and storing it. This came as a result of people reading the privacy policy and terms of service for FaceApp. The developers of the app addressed these concerns this week, which is likely the reason for the influx of searches.

Other top searches for the week include none other than former president Jacob Zuma. The former leader appeared before the Zondo commission this week before the way he was being questioned prompted the proceedings to be suspended. South Africa searched for Jacob Zuma over 100 000 times on Monday.

Finally, the biggest search this week was for Johnny Clegg. On Tuesday, following news of his passing, South African’s searched for the White Zulu as he was affectionately known 500 000 times. The iconic singer passed away at 66 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Looking back it has been a rather busy week for South Africa – a sad week if we’re honest.

As such we’d like to share a performance of Asimbonanga by Johnny Clegg featuring an appearance by none other than the subject of the song himself, Nelson Mandela.

[Image – CC 2.0 BY Darren Glanville]

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