Disinformation In Africa and Beyond Is Impacting Global Politics and Business

Ghana recently released its plan to target the problem of disinformation at a national level. The action plan saw a number of important stakeholders in the media sector coming together behind a National Action Plan, which was the product of the National Conference on Disinformation and Misinformation which took place in Accra in December 2023. The Ghanaian minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, summarized the risk which the country is facing, when he said that, “The risk…is that information that lacks integrity finds itself in the public domain, and that’s what gives rise to mis/disinformation”.

A significant challenge, and one that is quite unique to Ghana, has been that of climate disinformation. Although faced with problems such as high temperatures, extreme weather events and rising tides, the negative impact on the economy, and specifically the agricultural sector, is ongoing. As is known, Ghana relies on the agriculture sector to employ about 45% of the labor force. Climate disinformation has made light of these risks, underplaying the challenges facing the country, and impeding these being appropriately addressed. This has increased climate skepticism and made national policies addressing these issues fall short of what is needed to halt the negative impact of climate change once and for all.

The threat of disinformation is also being felt in the business realm, where according to research conducted, eight out of 10 believe that the effects of misinformation are most felt in the business world. In this light, more than half of business leaders reiterated their belief that the effects of this are likely to be worse in the future than they are now. According to the Prague Security Studies Institute, “Although disinformation in the private sector is often overlooked and understudied, its impact is projected to increase, as making an impact is simple, cheap, and profitable yet also extremely difficult and expensive to counter”. Africa is no exception, with local businesses and government industry both being equally at risk.

In Africa itself, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies identified West Africa as the region most at risk for disinformation. Ghana in particular is at risk of disinformation from both Russia and China, and the risk comes at a time when there are more than 400 million active social media users and 600 million internet users on the continent. 60% of these campaigns were identified as foreign led, showing the global impact of disinformation in the political sphere, similar to its risks in the business world. Although the information is false, the impact is very real.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) disinformation about the United Nations mission, MONUSCO, claimed that the UN was supporting and selling weapons to armed rebel groups. This led to violent protests in 2022 that resulted in the deaths of 5 peacekeepers and over 30 protesters. In Niger, Russian assets supported a July 2023 coup with the help of a barrage of disinformation which reached over 10 million people, including a social media clip of the Minister of Niger supposedly crying when summoned by the military to explain the country’s finances. As can be seen, the distance which actors pushing disinformation are willing to go to promote their narratives, in both the business and political spheres, truly have no limits.

As access to online media and social media in particular expands, so will the challenge, demanding a new set of tools to address this properly along with increased awareness as to the ever-increasing risk. Being aware of the risk is of course the first step, although this is not enough. We must all be wary of what information we share online, as once information is put into the online sphere, taking it back and undoing damage already done is impossible. It is up to each and every one of us to help fight this phenomenon, one news item at a time.

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