This archive report was first published on 11 September 2021.
September 11, 2021, marked a significant day for Kenyan civil society as new research by Mozilla Fellows Odanga Madung and Brian Obilo shed light on the shadowy world of disinformation-for-hire in the country.
According to the research, Kenyan journalists, judges, and other members of civil society are facing coordinated disinformation campaigns on Twitter, with the platform doing very little to curb this behavior.
Madung and Obilo conducted a two-month investigation using tools like Sprinklr, Twint, and Trendinalia, interviewing influencers who participated in the disinformation campaigns and collecting a vast trove of evidence, including screenshots, memes, and more.
The research uncovered at least 11 different disinformation campaigns consisting of over 23,000 tweets and 3,700 participating accounts.
As Odanga Madung noted, “This research provides a window into the booming and shadowy industry of Twitter influencers for political hire in Kenya. This industry’s main goal is to sway public opinion during elections and protests, especially with regard to Kenya’s ongoing constitutional review process, the Building Bridges Initiative.”
Brian Obilo added, “Amid this chaos, Twitter is doing very little. The platform allows malicious actors to run sock puppet accounts, create malicious content, generate fake engagement, and ultimately hijack Twitter’s very own trending algorithm. As a result, millions of Kenyans are being manipulated on Twitter.”
Twitter has since taken action on over 100 accounts operating in the country, which it found had engaged in violations of its platform manipulation and spam policy.
