How Africa rebuts online lies to protect democracy

As election season starts in much of the world, officials note an uptick in both blatant and subtle uses of social media to sow lies among voters. Africa is no exception – even though only 38% of its 1.6 billion people have regular access to the internet.Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country and one facing a presidential election in three months, is a prime target of these campaigns of disinformation and misinformation. Other countries include Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa.According to a Sept. 29 report by the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Russia-linked channels are the main source of online deception. The aim is to influence perceptions of democracy through exaggerated narratives of instability, crime, ethnic and religious rifts, and divisions with the West. China has also entered the fray, with more of an eye to burnishing its image rather than undermining local politics. Despite this online onslaught, many actors across sub-Saharan Africa are actively standing up to combat falsehoods with facts. They include civil society, the mainstream press, social media influencers, and governments. At the same time, they are helping people to pause and consider the intent and impact of information before rushing to share it.“The currency of trust is more valuable now than ever ... as we continue to grapple with the evolving threat of misinformation,” according to Eric Mugendi, chair of the Africa Facts Network Advisory Committee. He made this statement before the fifth Africa Facts Summit, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, later this month. That event will be followed by regional meetings in East and West Africa connected to the annual Global Media and Information Literacy Week. Last week, the West African nation of Ghana launched a youth-focused project along with Letsdebunk, a website that helps verify or disprove a range of reports. The multilingual service already has nearly 1,200 “fact checks” – verifying 114 as true, and more than 1,000 as false, misleading, or partly true.“Countering misinformation requires far more than correcting falsehoods after they spread,” wrote online personality John Best Uche in Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper in July. “It requires creating compelling, evidence-based narratives capable of reaching audiences before false information does. ... Credible information strengthens public trust. Responsible communication strengthens social cohesion.”A well-known Kenyan blogger, speaking after a training on serving as “trusted voices,” highlighted his “digital peacebuilding” role. “I see myself not just as a content creator,” Omar Abdallah observed, “but as ... contributing to a more responsible and rights-aware digital community.”In some ways, these training and awareness initiatives mirror efforts in European nations targeted by Russian disinformation. A key difference is that Africa relies more on traditional structures of community and religious leaders. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. “As trusted voices, [religious leaders] are uniquely positioned to promote truth, caution, verification, critical thinking and responsible communication,” a Nigerian Muslim leader, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, said in a June statement. “Religious leaders ... must encourage communities to pause before sharing information, verify before believing and seek evidence before making judgements.”Just a month earlier, the Catholic Church held a conference on responsible reporting and information sharing. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.