What links the Pope, Rihanna and Beyonce to Burkina Faso?
The answer? Nothing but disinformation. Nothing real links the trio to Burkina Faso.
Except they, Pope, Rihanna and Beyoncé have all been victims of deepfake videos that were circulated widely on social media in which they all appear to voice support for Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, the military leader of Burkina Faso.
This is part of a wider surge in organised disinformation that is flooding Africa’s media ecosystem and have taken a very strong hold in some online circles, shaping public opinion, steering and tilting public sentiments, highlighting the growing potency of disinformation globally.
The proliferation of disinformation across the African continent: The example above, is one of many that illustrates how African information ecosystems have become an increasingly popular frontline for foreign actors, waging their wars of influence through disinformation. Disinformation is the intentional spread of untrue information that is designed to mislead and manipulate.
Whilst traditional boots on the ground combat still occurs, in recent years, the fight for influence through disinformation within the African continent is alarming.
The African Centre for Security Studies reported a quadrupling of documented disinformation campaigns across the continent and between 2022 and 2023, up to 189. 60 per cent of these campaigns were foreign (non-African) sponsored.
These figures show that battles are being fought via the medium of information more than ever in Africa.
Globally, the massive acceleration in personal technology has acted as a mass enabler, providing more people than ever with access to online content.
But there are Africa-centred reasons too. For example, the escalation in information manipulation has been partly driven by Africa’s relative technological lag compared to other continents.
This lag has caused a heavy reliance on foreign innovation and imported technologies.
Additionally, weak state institutions in some African countries, combined with dissatisfaction with elites or grievances about scarce economic opportunities, help create a permissive environment.
Disinformation can easily permeate these environments and take hold, resulting in fertile ground in which further misleading propaganda can germinate.
Geopolitical factors
Geopolitical factors have also played a role in driving disinformation across Africa. For example, spreading misleading information, or helping African actors spread it, for instance, according to research by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in 2024, Russia is now the ‘leading purveyor’ of disinformation in Africa, responsible for nearly 40 per cent of the disinformation campaigns in Africa.
What could be the motive? Cultivate support to protect its economic interests? Generate backing to secure access to minerals and mining concessions? Who knows?
How is disinformation used?
External actors use disinformation in several ways in Africa. Over the years, disinformation has been used to undermine democratic systems and sow doubt about key democratic features like the electoral process.
This denigration of democracy helps to validate autocracy.
Thus, subtly but definitively installing and promoting the autocracy style of governance within the African continent.
Another way disinformation is used is to shape a narrative that protects an incumbent leader clinging to power.
This preserves or helps maintain a status quo which protects the interest of external actors be it security or economic interests.
Thirdly, and most importantly, disinformation has been utilised across Africa by external actors to stimulate or fan the flames of an existing conflict to provide security support or win military contracts.
Providing security services and security hardware to governments is a lucrative business and helps entrench a foreign actor’s influence in a target country.
Interfering in an election through disinformation in return for military support, or to inflame existing conflicts, can be a driver for military hardware sales and the entrenchment of influence. What are the impacts?
You could be forgiven for thinking there is nothing new to global powers vying for influence in Africa through the medium of information
After all, the Cold War saw multiple examples of this throughout Africa. But there are concerning real-life consequences to this continent-wide surge in disinformation.
Disinformation warps, obscures and deflects the truth until it is bent out of shape, often until it presents a different reality from what is seen and felt on the ground.
Confusion
This confusion can pit humans against each other as trust erodes and the unseen fabric frays that holds civil society, free and open media, and different cultures together.
In its place, ambiguity, paranoia and untruths have free rein.
For example, the layers of disinformation promoting Traoré’s successes in Burkina Faso’s ongoing war against extremism, which are supported by Russia, present a very different picture from the reality the data suggests.
Burkinabe citizens see content on social media extolling the achievements of their governments, but at the same time see their friends and neighbours facing increasing violence, who or what are they to believe?
Elections are another key target for disinformation. False or misleading information can be used to quash dissent for an incumbent leader, or it can be used to incite underlying ethnic or political grievances to help topple a leader.
Malawi’s recent election, which resulted in a quick and peaceful transfer of power, gives us hope.
But sadly, Africa has on too many occasions seen the transition of power descend into violence and nondemocratic abuse of power.
Disinformation has contributed to this.
Digital avatars, essentially fake user accounts purporting to be Pan-Africanists, and flooded social media, urging citizens to even support coupists. What can we do to prevent this?
Countering this growing threat is difficult.
The world of social media is an expanding and rapidly evolving environment that has policymakers running to catch up.
A robust response to disinformation requires strong governmental institutions to enforce fact-checking protocols and identification of foreign influence campaigns.
But countering disinformation effectively also requires a shift in mindset from everyday African citizens.
As the key recipients of disinformation, we, as the public, need to learn to think more critically about the content being pushed to us.
Then, we need support from the tech platforms to help us identify and report disinformation by providing easy-to-use tools to do so.
For better or worse, social media, the Internet and smartphones are not going away, and therefore neither is the threat of disinformation.
Either we need to adapt to better protect ourselves, or we will become passive targets of foreign narratives that require us to do nothing but watch and listen to be complicit in achieving their ends.
The writer is a producer of Panel 54, a Pan-Africa podcaster
