The Rampant Spread of Fake News in East Africa

From reports that spark mock outrage to claims that fuel inter-ethnic violence, fake news is wreaking havoc across East Africa.

Among the cases to play out last year were reports in February that the President of Tanzania John Magufuli had encouraged men to marry more than one woman in a bid to end prostitution. The story spread across the region and beyond, from Kenya to South Africa and Ghana, before the government could straight the record straight.  

In a case with rather more serious consequences in July of last year a US-based Ethiopian TV station aired a video that it claimed showed ethnic Oromos in Ethiopia pushing the bodies of Somalis into graves. Deadly violence between the two groups has been a problem and it appears that circulation of the clip on social media may have been the catalyst for subsequent fatal attacks on Oromos living in Djibouti and Somalia.  It later turned out that the video had previously been claimed to be footage of events in Cameroon, where Anglophone separatists have been in violent conflict with the government.

In 2019 fake news continues to proliferate and genuine media and journalists struggle to uncover suspect sources, who are often hidden away behind many layers of cyber anonymity.

Uganda is the location for the latest case study in a saga that would see a suspect group of Twitter profiles attempt to rewrite the public narrative around recent events in the country’s banking sector.

Parliament’s committee of Commission, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the take over and resale of seven private banks in Uganda. The high stakes nature of the transactions and the involvement of wealthy and connected individuals have served to muddy the waters over the facts of the case.

Against this backdrop a group of Twitter users have emerged that are seeking to push a distinct version of events, claiming that the Bank of Uganda has corruptly or unfairly cheated bank shareholders out of their assets for personal gain. However, a quick look at their profile histories reveals suspicious characteristics that suggest whether these are bots or manually controlled accounts their comments are being driven by a shared agenda.

Of the 42 suspect profiles identified 9 were created in the last four months, possess a small following of no more than 400 followers and Tweet exclusively on the case and closely related topics.  Examples include @kikoniB and @atuhahenry.

A further 25 accounts have been identified that either exclusively or almost exclusively Tweet on the case. Among these accounts was an interesting additional finding. While the creation of some of these accounts precedes their interest in the case for several they appear to have a history of operating on a promotional basis. Accounts such as @Shilling_King and @BonnyMuge may now have become solely preoccupied with the developments of a parliamentary probe into the sale of banks in Uganda, but prior to the case they appear to have been equally devoted to covering an event called #SoundsOfTamasha.

These 34 accounts are all fairly small in terms of their following. However, their sentiments and lines are echoed in the comments of several much bigger social media influencers, with at least 8 additional accounts with a high number of followers (in the thousands). Although this group have Tweeted on the case their comments represent a relatively low proportion of their overall activity on the platform. These accounts are clearly genuine but warrant their own red flags. Of these 8 identified to date, 5 explicitly describes themselves as either digital marketers or social media influencers. They are followed by and retweeted by the other 34 accounts to create a sense of support for their statements, using the same hashtags and handles to link their comments.

Nairobi based digital media analyst, Wilfred Kibet, told the East African Herald “The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has become a critical threat to public life. Looking at these examples shown in Uganda, it is clear that these accounts are there to relentlessly pursue the agenda of one private individual, rather than provide a honest or balanced opinion.”

Twitter can be a fascinating platform for observing public reaction to events and stories as they unfold but it comes with a serious health warning.