Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda

Digital disinformation is a direct threat to democracy and to fundamental human rights in Africa. Disinformation is playing an increasing role in distorting elections, inflaming conflict and disrupting crucial policy debates across the continent on issues including vaccinations, immigration, gender and reproductive rights. The ability of citizens to access trustworthy information, engage in reasoned debate and participate in decision-making about issues that affect their lives is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democratic citizenship. Disinformation – understood in this book as the intentional deployment of lies to manipulate people’s beliefs and behaviour in order to further political interests – runs counter to democratic ideals and violates fundamental human rights. This book analyses examples of disinformation in ten African countries: Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique, Egypt, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Powerful groups often use digital disinformation campaigns to close civic space online by attacking individuals or groups to negate their influence on key social issues. The examples in this book show how states often coordinate digital disinformation campaigns to deter opposition voices from participating in public deliberation. This is often achieved by polarizing debate, exacerbating existing social divisions and has the effect of diminishing faith in traditional media and political institutions and closing the civic space available for democratic participation, especially by marginalized groups.