FB, TikTok, & Twitter Contributed to Propaganda & Misinformation in Kenyan Elections

A report by the Mozilla Foundation claims that the social media giants Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter have turned into repositories of false information and misinformation that have harmed Kenya's most recent elections. The organization discovered a lot of incorrect information floating online in the days following the election. The group is attacking the three major social media sites that had pledged to maintain the election's integrity. The research has revealed how Kenyans were inundated with erroneous information online during the federal election in August 2022, including false claims of victory, accusations of political kidnapping, conspiracy theories, targeted attacks, and more. Since the aforementioned platforms pledged to protect Kenya's democratic processes, this reality frustrates truth seekers.  According to the research, some of these commitments were essentially token acts to assist them build their brands and had no real objective of promoting election security. However, the disinformation dystopia that has been witnessed is not completely attributable to these networks. According to The Conversation, political parties in Africa are also spending a lot of money to employ consultants with knowledge of manipulating social media content and online campaigning. It is obvious that persons with political and financial clout may simply use automated programmes, like bots, to influence how political content is distributed on social media. They are also capable of distorting information. [caption id="attachment_61761" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Image: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya[/caption] This assertion is supported by the fact-checking group AFP, which notes that even after the official election campaign time finished, the pervasive and dangerous flow of misinformation online persisted. "Keyboard warriors" weaponized false information and news to discredit competitors. Additionally, reports suggest that the camps of Deputy President William Ruto and seasoned politician Raila Odinga are disseminating a lot of posts that accuse their rival of engaging in vote-rigging schemes.  Several bloggers who distributed links to scandalous movies contributed to the spread of this falsehood.