In February 2022, just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, friends of Nigerian web designer and developer Olalekan Owonikoko noticed a surprising tweet on his feed. “NATO destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yugoslavia, and Libya,” the post said. “All the oppressed countries should stand with Russia. It’s not a war against the Ukrainian people but against NATO’s evil.”
But Owonikoko hadn’t posted that tweet. His account was one of thousands targeted to spread messages supporting the Russian invasion and claiming that Putin has the right to guard his country’s borders.
In the past few years, several countries and global powers have started interfering in Africa’s digital information ecosystem to advance their political interests and influence domestic politics. Disturbingly, these disinformation campaigns harm Africans by distorting their perception of reality and their understanding of events that impact their lives.
Russian disinfo campaigns across Africa
With the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Russia launched an international disinformation campaign to sway public opinion, control the narrative and twist facts on the ground. Africa was no exception.
Reports show that Russia has used fabricated documents to influence Africans’ views about Ukraine. In 2022, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab exposed that a Kremlin-linked Telegram channel, Rezident, published a forged document that claimed Ukraine was selling surplus weapons to African countries. Many other pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and Twitter accounts amplified and shared this document.
Most recently, Russia also started to use African influencers to spread their narratives. “Ranging from disseminating anti-French rhetoric to extolling the virtues of sanctioned oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mercenaries, these diligent mouthpieces have also justified Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine,” the news outlet Coda Story reports.
One of Russia’s main aims in its African disinformation campaigns has been to discredit its competitors in the continent.
One of Russia’s main aims in its disinformation campaigns has been to discredit its competitors in the continent. In February 2021, a news report revealed how Russian-linked trolls were spreading fake news about COVID-19 vaccines made in the U.S., claiming that they could harm the immune system and were less effective than their Russian counterparts.
Russia’s disinformation activities have also included depicting France as committing mass atrocities in West Africa and blaming the West for the international food crisis. In another case, a video circulated after the killing of gold mine workers in the Central African Republic accused France of secretly planning the attack to discredit Wagner and Russia.
Russia has also worked on polishing its image and attacking local governments through disinformation campaigns. In May 2021, Facebook removed a network that used inauthentic pages and groups that amplified pro-Russia content in Sudan; some of these pages were reported to attack the Sudanese Ministry of Health as ineffective and to accuse ministers of having fancy cars and living a comfortable life while presenting Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin as a true friend to Sudan. During the ongoing war, Russia has reportedly planned a disinformation campaign in Sudan, claiming that the Ukrainian forces that are fighting the Kremlink-linked Wagner mercenary group there are receiving Western arms for their operations.
Beyond Russia
Russia remains the most active foreign actor in Africa, spreading about 40% of the disinformation content across the continent, per a recent study from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Most recently, Africa’s disinformation landscape has morphed into a battlefield between Russia and America. The U.S. has been monitoring and exposing Russian disinformation campaigns and has started a coalition with its Western allies to address the Russian anti-Western narratives in Africa.
Other Western countries and their allies have also begun to wield disinformation as a tool to counter-influence Africans.
France, the former colonial power in the continent, has launched disinformation campaigns in Mali, the Central African Republic and the Sahel countries. In December 2020, Facebook removed several accounts and groups targeting local audiences with content related to French policy in Africa, the security situations in different African countries, Russia’s involvement in the Central African Republic, and supporting the French army operations in Africa.
The United Arab Emirates has also engaged in disinformation as a foreign policy extension, aiming to support local military allies and attack its rivals in Libya. China, with its apparent economic interest in Africa, deployed a network of fake fan accounts on Twitter and other Western social platforms to spread its messages, according to a seven-month investigation by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute.
In some cases, disinformation campaigns have been launched by private entities based in foreign countries. In August 2019, Facebook announced the removal of social media accounts linked with a Dubai-based firm that spread propaganda messages; some of these posts claimed that the Qatar government, one of the U.A.E.’s main political rivals, sponsored terrorist attacks in Somalia. In February 2023, an investigative report exposed that a team of contractors run by a former Israeli special forces operative had manipulated more than 30 elections worldwide, including several African countries, manipulating public opinion and disinformation campaigns using many fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
In other cases, analysts suggest, these campaigns were likely funded by African governments themselves to escape legal complications or the anger of the local media. Kenyan and Nigerian governments reportedly hired Cambridge Analytica to manipulate their elections. The company allegedly analyzed thousands of social media accounts in these countries and executed campaigns to manipulate the voters.
Countering foreign disinfo in Africa
To some extent, digital literacy programs can educate ordinary citizens about common tactics and tools used to spread disinformation. However, all of the campaigns mentioned here still use traditional digital disinformation tactics and strategies. The inevitable introduction of modern manipulation technologies, such as deepfakes and other photos and videos generated by artificial intelligence, will be much more difficult to identify and combat.
Fact-checking organizations such as Africa Check and Beam Reports have actively debunked viral foreign actors’ fabricated content that targets the continent. While certain social media companies have successfully dismantled many disinformation networks in Africa, experts have criticized these companies for failing to employ the necessary number to moderate African social content and not cooperating with local governments to silence dissidents.
To avoid becoming vehicles for widespread political manipulation, social media platforms must make serious investments in African content moderation teams.
Twitter’s decision, under new CEO Elon Musk, to shut down its only Africa office in Ghana will impact monitoring and removing disinformation on the platform. To avoid becoming vehicles for widespread political manipulation, social media platforms must make serious investments in African content moderation teams.
Cybercrime laws could also be beneficial in curbing the outreach of disinformation. Several African countries, including Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Uganda, have already introduced or enacted bills in this direction. These laws give the government the right to take down any harmful content. However, these laws can also be wielded to oppress political opponents and journalists and threaten freedom of speech by using vague terms to define disinformation and fake news.
As many Africans are not yet connected to the internet, the impact of these malicious actors is currently limited. But the expected rise of Internet penetration in the next few years means African countries should seriously consider the threat of disinformation and craft robust information policies to safeguard their national information security.
