Nigeria's The Authority published on 20 February 2026 an article titled "As Russia Takes Over the Wagner Group: Implications for Africa" by Ipole Amajama.
The government of the Russian Federation has taken over the Wagner Group under the guidance of the Foreign Intelligence Service. As a result, it has become part of the state-led strategy of influence and power projection. Much of its effort in Africa is focused on a media campaign of disinformation.
The Committee to Protect Journalists published on 24 January 2025 a press release titled "South Sudan Blocks Social Media Amid Unrest."
The government of South Sudan has directed all internet service providers to block access to all social media accounts for a minimum of 30 days.
The CTC Sentinel published in its January 2024 issue a detailed research article titled "The Online Frontline: Decoding al-Shabaab's Social Media Strategy" by Georgia Gilroy.
The article presents findings from a research study into al-Shabaab's online behavior between January and December 2023, and explores the concerning threats posed by al-Shabaab's growing technical skills. Al-Shabaab's continued resilience is enhanced by its sophisticated communications infrastructure. Its networks provide an alarmingly well-controlled, adaptive, and coordinated approach to social media that serves to weaponize online spaces and platforms.
The Washington Post published on 21 October 2023 an article titled "Spy vs Spy: How Israelis Tried to Stop Russia's Information War in Africa" by Elizabeth Dwoskin.
Russia has been running a successful information campaign using social media that was crucial in evicting French forces and UN peacekeepers in Mali and in establishing new alliances in the Sahel region. Western governments have failed to appreciate the impact of Russia's online strategy in Africa, which includes both covert operations and more public ones such as paying local influencers to fly to Russia.
The Atlantic Council published on 8 August 2023 a study titled "Sudan's Precarious Information Environment and the Fight for Democracy" by Tessa Knight and Lujan Alsedeg.
This report examines the state of digital affairs on Sudan in the lead-up to the current conflict, focusing on the period from the October 2021 coup through December 2022. Although only one third of the country has internet access, the government imposed constant internet disruptions.
The International Crisis Group published on 25 April 2023 a commentary titled "What Facebook Does (and Doesn't) Have to Do with Ethiopia's Ethnic Violence" by William Davison, Jane Esberg, and Alessandro Accorsi.
The commentary discusses the responsibility of social media companies, in this case Meta, for dealing with inflammatory content concerning Ethiopia that has the potential to lead to violence.
The Associated Press published on 10 February 2023 an article titled "Ethiopia's Social Media Blocked Amid Church Split Tensions."
A dispute within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church over the use of local languages resulted in calls on social media for protest rallies in Oromia Region. The government then suspended access to social media platforms.
The Associated Press published on 14 December 2022 an article titled "Ethiopians File Lawsuit against Meta over Hate Speech in War" by Cara Anna.
Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook's parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say exacerbated the conflict in Tigray Region. The lawsuit seeks the creation of a $1.6 billion fund for victims of hate speech.
Brookings published on 27 June 2022 an analysis titled "Russia's Narratives about Its Invasion of Ukraine Are Lingering in Africa" by Mary Blankenship and Aloysius Uche Ordu.
While Ukraine has been able to communicate by social media the atrocities of Russia's invasion, the Russians have successfully obscured the facts through misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a US non-profit organization, published on 20 February 2022 a report titled "Facebook Accused by Survivors of Letting Activists Incite Ethnic Massacres with Hate and Misinformation in Ethiopia" by Jasper Jackson, Lucy Kassa, Kathleen Hall, and Zecharias Zelalem.
The report looks at the use of hate speech in Ethiopian social media, its impact, and especially the failure of Facebook to remove it from the platform.
The BBC posted on 23 November 2021 an account titled "Ethiopia's Tigray Conflict: What Are Facebook and Twitter Doing about Hate Speech?" by Peter Mwai.
Both pro and anti-government users of Facebook and Twitter have posted hateful and inflammatory content in Amharic, Afan Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya. Social media platforms are caught in the middle as they try to manage these postings.
Reuters published on 16 August 2021 an article titled "Facebook, Telcos to Extend Subsea Cable to Four Countries."
Facebook and the 2Africa consortium of companies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and China Mobile International are adding countries in Africa to the world's largest subsea internet cable project.
The Oxford Internet Institute published on 11 May 2021 a study titled "China's Public Diplomacy Operations: Understanding Engagement and Inauthentic Amplification of PRC Diplomats on Facebook and Twitter" by Marcel Schliebs, Hannah Bailey, Jonathan Bright, and Philip N. Howard.
China makes use of both state-controlled media outlets and over 270 diplomatic accounts on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to amplify the country's perspective on global affairs and current events. Chinese diplomats and state-backed media agencies are highly active on Twitter.
