By. Savannah Riddick
DOI: 10.57912/28156757
Africa is now facing a new epidemic that threatens democracy. Disinformation campaigns, or more simply fake news, have now infected news and media channels in every country in Africa. In March of 2024, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies reported “189 documented disinformation campaigns,” nearly four times the amount in 2022. Every region on the continent has experienced an onslaught of these disinformation campaigns, and as many African countries have elections next year, their respective citizens must be on guard.
China and Russia are the two most prominent perpetrators. Their underhanded attacks have been linked to the promotion of violence, military coups, and the advancement of corruption. Chinese presence in Africa is not new; however, the relationship between the two has largely been seen as positive. China is heavily involved throughout Africa with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a major infrastructure project marketed as the 21st – Century Silk Road. The BRI involves economic, environmental, structural, and diplomatic projects. Africa is a major beneficiary of China’s BRI; however, they are now faced with a new and unwanted extension of the BRI: fake news sponsored by the CCP. Though awareness has spread of this hawkish strategy, it has proven difficult to stop due to the shaky foundations found in most democracies across Africa and the pervasiveness of digital illiteracy.
The 1990s marked the beginning of Africa’s widespread transition from oppressive autocratic regimes to burgeoning democracies. Previous military dictatorships had kept a tight leash on state-run media, and so as societies began to democratize, there was an “information-credibility gap” that social media was left to fill. This ushered in Africa’s digital democracy era, bringing several benefits, namely, growing political engagement and better-educated populations. The flip side of the coin, however, includes mass potential for manipulation of information, increased violence, greater censorship of the internet, and threatened democratic elections. Now, the genie can’t be put back in the bottle, and democracies all over the continent are facing widespread disruption and damage.
For authoritarian regimes, these misinformation campaigns are largely beneficial. By leading African citizens to believe that democracy is problematic, authoritarianism thus becomes normalized and seen as the higher form of governance. Compounding this problem is the relative newness of democracy in Africa and a somewhat shaky democratic foundation. An expert on African politics and the director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa, Charles Fombad, attributes the lack of solid and secure democracies to defective electoral systems. This is evidenced by Africa’s poor Perception of Electoral Integrity Index (EPI) score, an alarming 58 compared to the global average of 64.
Digital literacy, the ability to assess, evaluate, and contribute to digital information, is in high demand as technologies grow and expand. Unfortunately for African citizens, digital illiteracy remains a deep-rooted problem across the continent, largely due to economic and political underdevelopment. A study conducted on 25 Sub-Saharan African countries examined how those in sub-Saharan Africa engage with misinformation by assessing their digital access and literacy. This study found that only one country, Zimbabwe, demonstrated sufficient levels of news literacy while the rest exhibited considerably low levels of news literacy. It is no coincidence then that Zimbabwe has also become a major target of Chinese misinformation campaigns that condemn any public critique of the CCP and support anti-West propaganda. Fake news in Africa is a massive issue not solely because international actors are technologically savvy but because large populations of African citizens across the continent do not have the resources to determine the reliability of information.
Fake news poses three major threats; the first is an attack on free and fair elections, the second is regional instability, and the third is deteriorating international relations with democratic nations such as the United States, which stunts development across the African continent. This leaves a dangerous precedent for human rights abuses in Africa, as a decrease in the presence of foreign democracies and an increase in authoritarian presences will put less pressure on African governments to reform.
China has several prerogatives with its covert misinformation campaigns in Africa: to normalize authoritarian regimes and cast doubt on the effectiveness of democracy, spy on and arrest political dissidents, force democratic backsliding, and spread Chinese nationalism under the cover of helping African countries to further develop. By subverting Western influence and power in Africa, the CCP can legitimize authoritarianism while building a network of allies that ignore the CCP’s blatant disregard for civilian safety and freedom.
China has planted fake news in Africa through an “institutionalized approach,” which seeks to implement Chinese practices of media into Africa. This entails “training African journalists and editors in Chinese programs,” purchasing stock in African media companies, and the use of Chinese-made technology in Africa which is used for surveillance. In Uganda, the Chinese tech giant Huawei sold and installed cameras with facial recognition technology around the capital with the official purpose of helping police cut down on crime; however, these cameras have been used to spy on and arrestpolitical dissidents. These under-the-radar methods protect China from scrutiny and require a high level of vigilance from African media personnel across the continent.
The CCP has many reasons to target Africa, especially in the southern region, mainly because they have a strong relationship with local governments but also because many of these countries threaten China due to their democratic improvements. Through the BRI, China utilizes soft power approaches consisting of fake news, ideological campaigns, and increased Chinese foreign investment. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which involves 53 of all 54 African states, has become a launching pad for Chinese discourse power. Established in 2000, this multilateral forum has evolved from an economic and political partnership to an ideological one. The CCP has established the “China-Africa Common Destiny,” which uses a Chinese-inspired approach to African development. Essentially, Africa is given economic and political support to develop their societies without pressure to democratize.
Right now, fake news is a major threat to Africa’s national security and democracy. Foreign-sponsored disinformation campaigns have provoked division, spiked political polarization, and defaced democracies. To combat this, a combination of legislative policies, empowering and educating African media houses, and promoting greater digital literacy among rural and urban populations will all be necessary to combat threats to development across Africa. New legislation must be more specialized and specific, considering the inadequacy of current laws due to vague wording and their propensity to be manipulated. Government legislation needs to collaborate with democracy-enhancing institutions to hold political leaders accountable for utilizing fake news and to properly prosecute malicious actors. Additionally, democratic entities must provide alternative educational programs for African journalists to combat Chinese encroachment in African media houses. Institutions such as the Africa Center for Strategic Studies would be an excellent partner in this process because of their extensive research on this topic and their connection to the U.S. Department of Defense. And lastly, collaborative efforts between democratic entities like the European Union, technology developers, and African governments would greatly strengthen digital literacy competencies. Wehubit, a multifaceted program funded by the European Union and Belgium, serves as an excellent model for this approach. Their foundational work in Uganda has addressed the digital divide through educational approaches adapted to the Ugandan context. Funding from the African Union, U.S., and other NGOs would be needed to replicate this approach across the continent.
This covert extension of the BRI, fake news, threatens democracies across the African continent. Africa’s democratic allies should step up their efforts to encourage transparency in local African governance, revitalize democratic values as opposed to authoritarian ones, and support digital literacy initiatives. Until then, the whole of the African continent is at great risk of democratic backsliding unless there is a concentrated effort to cohesively re-establish democratic foundations across the African continent.
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