The Central African Republic was one of the first scenarios in which Russia's new deployment strategy on the African continent was unveiled.
In this formula, military support stands out to expeditiously deal with the corresponding security crisis.
That is the most visible part and the one that has generated the most attention.
However, it is accompanied by a significant proportion of intervention in the circles of power and a third ingredient that goes much more unnoticed, that of the influence of public opinion.
In its battle to replace other international powers, fundamentally France, Russia not only wants to have the support of the institutions, but also the applause of citizens, through intense propaganda campaigns and, on occasion, disinformation.
In a country like the Central African Republic, trapped in instability as if it were quicksand, with a government constantly threatened by dozens of armed groups that control large territories and a coexistence torpedoed by discourses of ethnic and religious belonging, the operations of disinformation are a time bomb and, increasingly, all the actors that fight for control resort to these maneuvers.
In a country like the Central African Republic, caught in instability as if it were quicksand, disinformation operations are a time bomb and, increasingly, all the actors that fight for control resort to these maneuvers
In the midst of tensions between international powers, those who seek to preserve their privileges and those who aspire to replace them;
and of the atomized national actors, confronted and clinging to control of certain communities, members of civil society try to neutralize the rumors and false news used to manipulate the population.
“Communication has become virtual and viral, and misinformation has become a combat weapon for international powers fighting for influence,” warns Grâce Ngbaleo.
She is one of the members of a small but tireless group of journalists, bloggers and digital activists who have dedicated themselves to verifying information.
“Today we witness a
boom
of disinformation in social networks in relation to the security context of the country”, he explains.
Although the technological profile of the country might suggest that the impact of misinformation on the Internet is anecdotal, experience shows how networks feed the distribution channels of rumors and false information.
Only seven out of every hundred Central Africans have access to the Internet and less than half of them (2.8% of the population) are active on social networks.
However, Ngbaleo recalls: “In our country, misinformation or rumor is oral before anything else.
In Sango (the majority language in the country), we call the bad word
atènè
.
It refers to misinformation, which had an oral origin but has now abandoned this traditional form of dissemination.
To adapt to social networks, above all, with the current context of insecurity and with the health crisis of the pandemic”.
The uncertainty caused by covid-19 has intensified the logic of disinformation and has multiplied, precisely, the circulation of this type of false information.
"In May 2020, the EU sent protection kits for the population and certain media outlets and blogs claimed that these masks were contaminated by the virus and that the Europeans had sent them to wipe out the Central African population," says Ngbaleo.
And this context also offers a sample of the interaction between oral and digital diffusion.
“Sometimes”, says the Central African verifier, “rumors leave the community to spread through social networks and sometimes they leave social networks to integrate into the community.
During the covid-19 crisis, there was a widespread rumor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Cameroon that if you made an infusion with hair found inside a Bible and drank it, you were immunized against the disease.
It was a rumor that came from afar and that reached the Central African Republic through social networks, but it continued to spread through homes and many people came to practice it.
This is due to the fact that precisely this lack of connection means that "the person who is on social networks, in reality, is the king, and has the possibility of saying look what has come to me through my
smartphone
," he says. Ngbaleo.
The connected person "becomes the owner of reality and many newspapers copy and paste information that circulates through the networks without worrying about verifying it," he adds, lamenting: "You can imagine the impact they have."
“The connected person becomes the owner of reality and many newspapers copy and paste information that circulates through the networks without worrying about verifying it”
Grâce Ngbaleo, one of the members of a group of verifiers
The Association of Bloggers of the Central African Republic has been working for five years to neutralize the spread of false information and hate speech on networks in a country where coexistence is held in a precarious balance.
In recent times, other initiatives have been added to this work.
For example, Radio Ndeke Luka, the most listened to in the country and sponsored by the Fondation Hirondelle, leads Stop Atènè, a project that has the support of the EU and in which bloggers, civil society groups, community radios and, even artists.
All the media involved are responsible for sharing and amplifying the information verification investigations carried out within the framework of the project to get more echo.
On the other hand, since August 2021 there is another project, supported by CFI,
This is how a small command of verifiers has been configured, precisely at a particularly delicate moment.
"Everyone is involved in this wave of disinformation," says Ngbaleo, who recalls that the platforms in which he participates have denied rumors aimed at discrediting MINUSCA (United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic), hoaxes that magnified the government fight against rebel groups or gossip pointing to threats against particular religious groups.
“These publications on social networks have a direct impact on the community, because the risk we are going through cannot be forgotten.
In this country there have been community conflicts between Christians and Muslims, so that certain information attacks coexistence and can have disastrous consequences for democracy,
The Association of Bloggers of the Central African Republic has been working for five years to neutralize the spread of false information and hate speech on networks in a country where coexistence is held in a precarious balance
This work of verifying information, the struggle of these bloggers and journalists to neutralize disinformation, has already shown the personal cost of this commitment.
They have been living in disrepute, intimidation and obstacles for a long time;
however, the spiral of threats appears to have only just begun and is escalating rapidly.
Last February one of the country's most popular fact checkers, Jean Sinclair Maka Gbossokotto, died under mysterious circumstances.
The official version is that death was due to natural causes, due to an undetermined illness;
although in the immediate environment of the journalist the suspicion of poisoning resonates.
Jean Sinclair Maka Gbossokotto had turned his own Anti Infox RCA platform into a benchmark in the fight against disinformation.
This small but active group of information verifiers live with constant and growing threats and assume their activity almost like a mission.
Ngbaleo warns of the generalization of a dangerous strategy of confusion: “It is a true disinformation campaign.
It addresses the sentiment of anonymous Central Africans.
They make the public believe things that are not real, to reinforce certain ideas, either to show their power or to defame the opponent.
We are in a situation that is still fragile.”
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