Analysis - Disinformation campaigns seeking to manipulate African information systems have surged nearly fourfold since 2022, triggering destabilizing and antidemocratic consequences.
. The scope of these intentional efforts to distort the information environment for a political end is accelerating. The roughly 200 documented disinformation campaigns in Africa areThere is a strong link between the scope of disinformation and instability.
Countries confronting disinformation typically face multiple disinformation actors. At times, these actors amplify one another's misleading narratives, while at others, they clash or stay in separate lanes. These disinformation campaigns employ paid African influencers, digital avatars, and the circulation of fake and out-of-context videos and photographs. These messages copy-and-paste from and are, radio, and official communications, creating the repetitive echo chambers in which disinformation narratives become rote.
The second largest sponsor of disinformation in the region are the military juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso. These regimes are isolated and increasingly dependent on Russian-backing to hold onto power. They are emulating Russian disinformation techniques, while scapegoating France, the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States, and human rights groups.
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