Allan Cheboi leads the continent’s largest team of data wranglers and forensic analysts at CfA’s iLAB in their hunt for the most pernicious disinformation campaigns online. Of late, his team’s focus has been firmly fixed on uncovering networks targeting Africa with Covid-19 disinformation campaigns and narratives. Some of his team’s outstanding work has included helping to unearth an elaborate web of Russian disinformation in Sudan, a disinformation campaign targeting the Ugandan election, as well as identifying political disinformation campaigns in Kenya and anti-vaxx propaganda in Cote ‘d’Ivoire.

The infodemic, as it has come to be known, is holding sway in Africa and threatening efforts to effectively combat the pandemic. Often finding a fertile ground on social media networks, these false narratives range from outright absurd — like conspiracy theories claiming that Covid-19 vaccines contain microchips — to the intentionally deceptive — taking alcohol protects against the virus.

While we might not give them much thought, these campaigns are often coordinated and have very damaging consequences, including fuelling vaccine hesitancy and apathy in many parts of the world.

In this interview, Allan Cheboi, Senior Investigations Manager at Code for Africa’s iLAB discusses the quest to unmask the actors behind disinformation in Africa, the challenges and opportunities presented by technological advancements such as artificial intelligence, and why the fight is now heading to the dark social media networks.

Of all types of disinfo, vaccine disinfo ranks highest; why do you think this is the case and is this trend observed outside Africa?

Vaccine disinformation ranks the highest mainly because of the coordinated amplification behaviour we see from anti-vaxx communities. The cult-like following that these communities have acts as the core driver for the spread of mis/disinformation around vaccines. The virality of these claims is also pegged on the diverse nature of conspiracy theories related to vaccines in general, such as mis/disinformation around initiatives like polio vaccination in Africa. The virality of anti-vaccination disinformation content also enables perpetrators to monetise the content views or site visits to simply make money.

It is also worth noting; evidence suggests that most of the anti-vaxx messaging in Africa is actually imported from Europe and North America. This gives a clear indication that the trend observed in Africa is probably amplified much more in these countries and worldwide.

Governments and politicians rank the highest as sources of Covid-19 misinformation. Why is this so?

Because they are considered as trusted sources. Citizens, civic watchdogs, fact-checking organisations and the media tend to fact-check and verify much of the Covid-19 information shared by governments. This translates to a large pool of information to verify and thus the high number of debunked claims.

Likewise, politicians and other leaders have a huge following on social media and are similarly under constant scrutiny. Where politicians share unverified information that ends up being misleading, the information is easily picked up by these organisations.

It is important to note that, because of their influence, a high percentage of false claims from their accounts are misinformation cases, meaning, they are not shared with an ill motive.

Misinfo thrives where there is a lack of official information. What can governments/authorities do to help the fight?

Governments should provide accurate and evidence-based information to the public. They should also not resort to measures such as internet shutdowns and restrictions.

You have observed that disinfo coordination often occurs on social media. Which networks is it most prevalent on?

WhatsApp is the most affected because this is the primary social media channel for communication in Africa.

With more scrutiny on the mainstream social media networks, are we facing the risk of misinfo going underground?

Definitely! From the research we did in Cote d’Ivoire we noticed that most of the anti-vaxx communications related to Covid-19 were mainly shared on encrypted channels such as WhatsApp and Telegram. We attribute this to the extensive adoption of media monitoring by civic organisations and watchdogs, which spotlights any mis/disinformation shared on public social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

How easy is it to monitor these dark social media networks?

It is extremely difficult to monitor the dark socials. This is mainly because of the privacy concerns and lack of visibility to information shared in groups or channels that researchers do not have access to. This means it is very difficult to track, source or attribute a piece of content shared on these channels.

How vulnerable are African countries to narratives from North America and Europe? How can we build more resilience to these kinds of external influences/campaigns?

African countries are extremely vulnerable to imported mis/disinformation. Many Africans would share content from the Global North because they tend to believe them more. To build resilience, education is key. Educating citizens and making it a norm for individuals to question any suspicious or viral content will help turn the tide against misinformation.

You have noted that anti-vaxx campaigns tend to be more coordinated compared to misinfo on the Covid-19 virus. Have you established the origin of these campaigns and any vested interests?

This is part of an ongoing research in the countries we are looking at, including Côte d’ivoire. These campaigns are mainly content imported from the Global North. However, most of the misinformation tends to be shared using sock-puppet accounts which makes it difficult to trace the real owners.

How often do you employ AI and Machine Learning in monitoring and fighting misinformation? How advanced are these technologies and what is their future outlook?

The advancement in technologies with capabilities such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis has enabled researchers who work in the mis/disinformation space to do more in-depth research and monitoring on social media and mainstream media. Social media monitoring tools are, however, not customised to the research into mis/ disinformation, but rather to marketing/ PR efforts.

Many civic organisations are currently working on solutions based on AI/ML capabilities to help fight mis/disinformation.

Looking into the future, what dangers do deepfakes pose?

Deepfakes are a major concern especially in the context of mis/disinformation. The ability to create videos and images of fake events or put words into people’s mouths will definitely change the game.

It would be good to include companies such as Adobe into these conversations this early so that we can implant solutions to fight mis/disinformation in the processes and operations of their technological tools.

Are we making headways in the fight against misinfo? Have you seen a decline in certain types of tactics? What are the new ones?

We definitely are. Currently, citizens are increasingly understanding that there is a need to verify information they see on social media. This means that the population is learning to question content they see on digital platforms.

Some of the tactics we’ve seen being used in Africa include: use of automated accounts (bots), sock puppet and fake accounts. This is meant to anonymise the perpetrators. We’ve also seen an increase in the use of local media organisations, NGOs and think tanks to propagate certain types of mis/disinformation — especially those originating from foreign nations. This is meant to bring authenticity to the narratives being shared by the disinformation actors.

Are our newsrooms well equipped with the right tools and personnel necessary to deal with misinformation? How important is collaboration between newsrooms?

Our newsrooms need to invest in tools and personnel that can undertake advanced data analysis to power investigations into mis/disinformation. Telling evidence based stories will be one of the key methodologies implemented by newsrooms to help in this infodemic.

Collaboration between newsrooms is important because it enables them to share resources, solutions and ideas, which makes it easier and cheaper to join the fight against mis/disinformation.

Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of civic technology and data journalism labs, with teams in 21 countries. CfA builds digital democracy solutions that give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions, and that strengthens civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability. This includes building infrastructure like the continent’s largest open data portals at openAFRICA and sourceAFRICA. CfA incubates initiatives as diverse as the africanDRONE network, the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative, the sensors.AFRICA air quality sensor network and the research and analysis programme Civic Signal.

CfA also manages the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), which gives the continent’s best muckraking newsrooms the latest possible forensic data tools, digital security and whistleblower encryption to help improve their ability to tackle crooked politicians, organised crime and predatory big business. CfA also runs one of Africa’s largest skills development initiatives for digital journalists, and seed funds cross-border collaboration.