Disinformation

  • Illustration with ECOWAS, Nigerian, and Niger flags, two phones showing portraits, and a microphone symbolizing media or communication.
    Aliyu Dahiru

    Nigeria Is Facing An Information War In Its Own Language

    Two years ago, Bashir Muhammad received an invitation to attend a journalism summit in Niamey but declined. That decision, and the argument it provoked, told him everything he needed to know. He runs one of the growing number of Hausa-language digital news platforms that have emerged across northern Nigeria in the past decade, serving local …

    Read More
  • Ibrahim Adeyemi

    Fact-Check: Trending Photos of Nnamdi Kanu in Prison Uniform Are AI-generated

    Multiple photos have shown Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in an awkward prison setting, suggesting how he is faring in custody, following his recent life sentence after years of legal battle with the Nigerian government. The photos, widely shared on Facebook and other social media platforms, portray him languishing …

    Read More
  • Collage of smartphone screens displaying various social media content, connected by red lines, with a hoodie-clad figure in the background.
    Aliyu Dahiru

    How TikTok Fuels a New Wave of WhatsApp Scams in Hausa Language

    When Mukhtar Dahiru saw a TikTok video promising he could make money on WhatsApp, he clicked without hesitation. Within days, after he shared a one-time password with the “recruiters”, his WhatsApp account was hijacked, his cryptocurrency wallets drained. He later realised the “opportunity” had been a scam. “The road is tricky, and this time I …

    Read More
  • Damilola Ayeni

    The Deepfakes Moving Africa Carry European Fingerprints

    “So what?” Richard Martin, a US-based pan-Africanist, shot back on LinkedIn, dismissing another user who dared to call a trending speech of Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, by its real name: a deepfake. It was the kind of fiery anti-imperialist speech delivered by Muammar Gaddafi at the United Nations in 2009. “You ask, …

    Read More
  • Group of smiling people wearing matching vests and ID badges in front of a "Ghana Fact-Check" banner.
    Isah Ismaila

    #GhanaDecides2024: CJID Deploys Team To Counter Election Misinformation

    The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and its fact-checking subsidiary, DUBAWA, have deployed a team of fact-checkers, observers, and open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts to Ghana ahead of its 2024 general election. The general election to elect a new president and members of parliament is expected to be held today, Dec. 7. According …

    Read More
  • Person wearing a Guy Fawkes mask with a glitch effect and football match scores in the background.
    Kunle Adebajo

    The Facebook Network Using Prophecies And Disinformation To Swindle Nigerians

    Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… Key takeaways: The fraudulent Anonymous network pretends to be affiliated with a hacktivist movement that goes by the same name in order to win the trust of potential victims. There are hundreds of pages on Facebook using this tactic. Many of them post the same content. The …

    Read More
  • A stylized image with TikTok logo overlaying a collage of soldiers and military scenes in cyan and black halftone.
    Aliyu Dahiru

    Inside The Propaganda World Of Nigerian Terrorists On Tiktok

    Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… Northwestern Nigeria, long bedevilled by terrorism locally referred to as banditry, now faces an emerging threat: the use of social media platforms, particularly TikTok, by violent non-state actors to spread propaganda, undermine security efforts, and incite violence. With an internet penetration rate of 45.5 per cent as …

    Read More
  • Several people lying in the back of a pickup truck, with a focus on one individual looking at the camera.
    Aliyu Dahiru

    Fact-check: Did Kano Police Spokesperson Share Photos Of Suspected Looters From 2011?

    Social media, particularly Facebook and X (Twitter), has been flooded with images of people arrested for allegedly looting government and private properties during the #EndBadGovernanceProtest in Kano, North West Nigeria, after they were uploaded to Facebook by the Police Public Relations Officer, Kano Command, Abdullahi Kiyawa. A significant number of these posts, including those by …

    Read More