A Critical Review of Ezeji (2024):
"Emerging Technologies and Cyber-Crime: Strategies for Mitigating Cyber-Crime and
Misinformation on Social Media and Cyber Systems"
Digital Crime
Julia Prümmer & Leonore ten Hulsen
Crisis and Security Management
S3715930
29-04-2026
Word count: 1489
, 2
Introduction
Ezeji’s (2024) article addresses an undeniably important problem: the proliferation of
cybercrime and misinformation across social media platforms, with a particular focus on South
Africa. Drawing on a mixed-method design involving interviews and questionnaires with fifty
professionals from law enforcement and cybersecurity, the study seeks to map emerging
cybercrime challenges and propose mitigation strategies. While the topic merits serious academic
attention and the practitioner perspective carries real value, the article is undermined by
significant methodological weaknesses, a theoretical framework that fails to connect to the
empirical material, and conclusions that routinely exceed the scope of the data. This review
critically evaluates those limitations while acknowledging the article's contributions to ongoing
policy discussions.
Summary
The article sets out to answer four research questions: The nature of emerging technology
crime challenges in South Africa; the impact of misinformation and conspiracy theories on cyber
systems; the categories of cybercrime active in the country; and holistic mitigation strategies.
Ezeji (2024) describes the approach as mixed method, combining unstructured interviews with
questionnaire surveys administered to fifty respondents drawn from the South African police
services, cyber and digital crime units, and forensics incident handlers. Findings are reported
primarily as percentage claims, followed by policy recommendations directed at government,
law enforcement, and social media platforms. The article also includes a literature review
covering criminological theory, typologies of cybercrime, and the role of artificial intelligence in
cybersecurity.
Methodological critique
The most significant weakness of the article is its methodology and, specifically, the
tension between the claims it makes and the design it actually employs. Ezeji (2024, p. 278)
describes using “both qualitative and quantitative techniques, with unstructured interviews and
surveys,” positioning the study as a mixed-method design. However, a rigorous mixed-methods
design requires not merely the coexistence of qualitative and quantitative elements but their
explicit integration in a way that is justified by the research questions and made transparent in
"Emerging Technologies and Cyber-Crime: Strategies for Mitigating Cyber-Crime and
Misinformation on Social Media and Cyber Systems"
Digital Crime
Julia Prümmer & Leonore ten Hulsen
Crisis and Security Management
S3715930
29-04-2026
Word count: 1489
, 2
Introduction
Ezeji’s (2024) article addresses an undeniably important problem: the proliferation of
cybercrime and misinformation across social media platforms, with a particular focus on South
Africa. Drawing on a mixed-method design involving interviews and questionnaires with fifty
professionals from law enforcement and cybersecurity, the study seeks to map emerging
cybercrime challenges and propose mitigation strategies. While the topic merits serious academic
attention and the practitioner perspective carries real value, the article is undermined by
significant methodological weaknesses, a theoretical framework that fails to connect to the
empirical material, and conclusions that routinely exceed the scope of the data. This review
critically evaluates those limitations while acknowledging the article's contributions to ongoing
policy discussions.
Summary
The article sets out to answer four research questions: The nature of emerging technology
crime challenges in South Africa; the impact of misinformation and conspiracy theories on cyber
systems; the categories of cybercrime active in the country; and holistic mitigation strategies.
Ezeji (2024) describes the approach as mixed method, combining unstructured interviews with
questionnaire surveys administered to fifty respondents drawn from the South African police
services, cyber and digital crime units, and forensics incident handlers. Findings are reported
primarily as percentage claims, followed by policy recommendations directed at government,
law enforcement, and social media platforms. The article also includes a literature review
covering criminological theory, typologies of cybercrime, and the role of artificial intelligence in
cybersecurity.
Methodological critique
The most significant weakness of the article is its methodology and, specifically, the
tension between the claims it makes and the design it actually employs. Ezeji (2024, p. 278)
describes using “both qualitative and quantitative techniques, with unstructured interviews and
surveys,” positioning the study as a mixed-method design. However, a rigorous mixed-methods
design requires not merely the coexistence of qualitative and quantitative elements but their
explicit integration in a way that is justified by the research questions and made transparent in
