In an era of hashtag campaigns and online organising, politicians and corporations are spending billions to disrupt dialogue and drown-out dissent online across Africa. Join this event to discuss these issues and more, explored in the new book Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda.
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This new open-access book – the first dedicated to disinformation in Africa – presents a range of case studies of these emerging dynamics across Africa, mapping and analysing disinformation operations in ten different countries, and using innovative techniques to determine who is producing and coordinating these increasingly sophisticated disinformation machines.
Drawing on scholars from across the continent, case studies document the actors and mechanisms used to profile citizens, manipulate beliefs and behaviour, and close the political space for democratic dialogue and policy debate.
Chapters include examinations of how the Nigerian government deployed disinformation when the #EndSARS campaign focused attention on police brutality and corruption; insights into how pro-government actors responded to the viral #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign; and how misogynists mobilized against the #AmINext campaign against gender-based violence in South Africa.
Through the documentation of episodes of unruly politics in digital spaces, these studies provide a valuable assessment of the implications of these dynamics for digital rights, moving beyond a focus on elaborations of the idea of ‘fake news’, and providing actionable recommendations in the areas of policy, legislation and practice.
It features case studies from ten countries in Africa: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia, South Africa, DRC, Cameroon, Uganda, Angola, Kenya and Nigeria.
Speakers
- Tony Roberts, IDS Research Fellow and co-editor
- George Karekwaivanane, University of Edinburgh and co-editor
- Edmilson Angelo, IDS Postgraduate Researcher and chapter author
- Rutendo Chabikwa, interdisciplinary PhD candidate, University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute and chapter author
Chair
Caroline Khene, IDS Research Fellow and Leader of the Digital and Technology Cluster
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