This archive report was first published on 11 September 2021.
On May 18, 2021, a malicious hashtag #AnarchistJudges began trending on Kenyan Twitter, fueled by bots and sock puppet accounts. The campaign falsely accused senior High Court of Kenya judges of narcotics dealings, bribery, and political partisanship, following their decision to reject the Constitutional Amendments Bill of 2021.
Our investigation, conducted with Mozilla Foundation colleague Brian Obilo, reveals a booming industry of social media influencers for hire in Kenya. These influencers, often anonymous, are paid to spread disinformation and silence critics. Twitter, with its influential trending algorithm, has become a key platform for these operations.
Using tools like Twint, Sprinklr, and Trendinalia, we analyzed two months of data (May 1 to June 30) and identified 23,606 tweets and retweets from 3,742 accounts under 11 hashtags. The campaigns targeted Kenyan activists and judicial officers, seeking to discredit civil society organizations and portray them as villains funded by Deputy President William Ruto.
The well-coordinated attacks are often directed through WhatsApp groups, where administrators provide instructions on what to post, who to target, and how to synchronize posts for maximum impact. As one influencer revealed, the goal is to 'go trending on Twitter' and maintain a lucrative career.
