Malema lends his support to @AdvBarryRoux, the ‘CiC of Black Twitter’

Many social media users have come out in support of the Zambian man allegedly behind parody Twitter account @AdvBarryRoux. A plethora of tweets from social media users have shown users calling for the notorious account holder to be left alone.

Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema on Friday tweeted his suspicions around all the investigative work News24 had done to unearth the account holder’s identity, labelling them “Stratcom”.

He encouraged the account, which calls itself the Commander-in-Chief of Black Twitter, to “go deeper”. The account itself holds a similar view.

Other users had earlier made it clear that they enjoyed the account’s in-the-loop posts and would not be shaken by the fact that his identity was now unmasked.

The account was comprehensively linked on Friday morning to Zambian national Csho “Shepard” Chilala.

Chilala, a 27-year-old Zambian blogger, has more than 500,000 followers through the @AdvBarryRoux parody account.

The account is known for “dropping files”, a social media term for leaking sensitive information. It is also known for Twitter threads with galleries of screenshots serving as supposed proof of scandals and corruption, which are sometimes true, sometimes not.

According to News24’s investigation, Chilala in around 2017 told his followers the Barry Roux account was operated by more than one person. The account gained its notoriety during the trial of disgraced convicted Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, when Chilala’s account @CshoChilala was featured in an IOL article.

In March 2014 Chilala changed the name of his Twitter handle from Cshochilala to @MrBarryRoux and later to @barry_roux. That account was suspended in April 2017, which forced him to use the @AdvBarryRoux account.

Interviewed in January 2018 on his influence, he claimed he verified information before he shared it.

Chilala’s online presence has now also been linked to a Facebook account under the name Vusi Mkhize, according to News24. A 2017 screen grab shows an image that appears to be part of a selfie. The same image was linked by News24 to an image of Chilala.

His blogspot page was also linked to the @AdvBarryRoux account through Chilala’s email. Previous speculation around the account was that it was operated by crime intelligence operatives or even people who worked for national police.

Black Twitter appears to be unphased by the recent discovery and wants the man behind the account to be left alone.

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