By Felix Khanoba
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, prominent pro-democracy think tank, Centre for Democracy and Democracy and Development (CDD) has released a major report on social media, online information disorder and their impact on this year’s polls.
The 10-page report titled Online operations: Nigeria’s 2023 social media election campaigns, chronicled the challenge of misinformation, malinformation and disinformation, which have dominated the social media platforms as the country counts down to the historic 2023 polls.
A statement signed by CDD director, Idayat Hassan, and made available to The AUTHORITY on Wednesday in Abuja, said a major aspect of the report focused on the political actors, whose activities drive the spread of fake news, misinformation and disinformation.
In this regard, the report identified a multiplicity of actors whose activities muddy the water and make sorting fact from fiction difficult for Nigerians during the build up to the polls.
The report stresses: “For the first time, presidential candidates’ spokespersons, across all main parties, are pushing disinformation using their own social media handles. An analysis of breaches of the Peace Accord moderated by the National Peace Committee revealed more than 63% of the infractions were on social media. But it is not just party activists that are more directly involved, parties are again using networks of aligned supporters to win the ‘online war’.
“In the 2019 elections the Atikulated Youth Force, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP social media support base for its presidential candidate, and the Buhari Media Centre (BMC), with links to the All Progressives Congress (APC), dominated the online discourse. Such groups are still present in 2023, although part of the BMC has now evolved to centre around APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu as BATified. However they have been supplanted in 2023 by Obidients – a name given to the supporters of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi. They are the most active online actors in this election. In addition to promoting the candidacy of Obi many have been accused of spreading disinformation.
“In fact the candidate himself sought to call them to order in September 2022, after his presidential campaign was accused of using overzealous social media supporters to skew the narrative in his favour. Obi also distanced himself from any supporters engagement in malicious campaign against his opponents in a series of tweets. But malicious online campaigns engineered by all leading parties continue to be a prevailing feature of Nigeria’s information ecosystem.”
The report also documented how disinformation ecosystem has created lucrative opportunities, particularly for youth. It revealed how the most visible political influencers on social media, who are hired by political parties or individual candidates, earning up to N500,000 (US$1200) a month, whilst those with smaller followings are likely to receive nearer N50,000 (US$110).
“Though not all influencers are paid, those that are, believe that politicians have increasingly come to recognise the important role social media plays in politics and are investing more resources in it as a result. They argue that young citizens currently receive most of their information from digital platforms and that social media influencers even determine the direction and narrative taken by traditional media.
“This means that their influence extends beyond the online sphere, which is important, as in rural communities traditional media, in particular local radio, still retains a strong influence. Less prominent, but still important, are public relations firms such as Mint Reach who are playing an increasingly prominent role in handling the digital campaigns of frontline presidential candidates.”
The CDD report noted that greater access to online information has not translated into more informed citizens, pointing out that social media has in many contexts confused citizens while entrenching pre-existing divides based on ethnicity and religion. The report also bemoans the anomaly of the information disorder, which gains traction on social media, especially the reality of malinformation, which involves the deliberate sharing of genuine information with an intent to cause harm. This thrives in the political discourse in the build up to the polls, the report notes.
The report further averred that in 2023, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp, TikTok, with their video content have been playing a dominant role in feeding citizens with content, especially video based information, which connects people beyond digital divides.
The report noted: “So too are Twitter Spaces, which are recorded and then shared, as a podcast, across social media platforms in ways that increases listenership. The report makes the point that: “Cross-platform posting remains critical to understanding Nigeria’s digital ecosystem as screen grabs or content from one platform can be shared across all others, broadening the reach beyond the number of direct users. Content also moves from online forums into offline spaces with soldiers of mouth spreading online content through streets talks, in motor parks and at newspaper stands. This makes curbing disinformation very challenging in Nigeria.
“But at the same time these networks for the flow of information can also promote democracy. Civic awareness of the continuous voter’s registration process and the importance of participating has largely been driven by a sustained online campaign in the run-up to 2023, while the platforms can be used to fact check and hold elected and aspiring officials to account. Finding a balance that accentuates these positives and diminishes the negative aspects must be a priority as the elections approach.”
According to the statement, in terms of responses by stakeholders to the specter of misinformation in the 2023 electoral process, the report threw light about coordination by the Nigerian media and civil society platforms towards tackling disinformation in the 2023 electoral cycle, even as it noted that the setup of the Nigerian Fact Checking Coalition in September 2022 has enabled 12 Nigerian media and civil society platforms to jointly investigate, author and disseminate fact checks, widening their reach.
“These coordinated actions can bolster information integrity during the elections. Compared to the 2019 general election, INEC alongside her partners is also playing a much more visible and proactive role engaging and training both online and mainstream media platforms across the country on the issue of disinformation. The Commission has also been active and engaged online – its Twitter account has over two million followers – and it is engaging tech platforms on moderation during the elections. But it can still do more.”
On the accountability front, the report made references to sporadic efforts to clampdown on online falsehoods. “In Kano, leading TikTok users were arrested for producing videos accusing the Kano state governor of being corrupt in late 2022. They were charged for defamation and sedition, and sentenced to 20 strokes of cane, to sweep the court premises for 30 days and a fine of N10,000 each. But such punitive measures are driven more by politics than a systemic approach to tackling disinformation online.”
As for the response of social media companies, the CDD report described them as mixed. It said: “Since the commencement of the electoral cycle Meta have consistently met with stakeholders in the electoral system both government and civil society. Asides the sponsorship of some fact checking platforms, they have offered training, engaged and even, in an unprecedented move, given accounts of some of the disinformation circulating on her platform. This is a good beginning but can be further bolstered by the swift removal of content and downgrading of algorithms. The closure of the Twitter office for Africa in Ghana means its moderation of the content will be limited during this election.”
