Panel Event Highlights 2024 Electoral Disinformation Campaigns

The year 2024 has been described as an electoral super-cycle, with 64 countries heading to the polls — impacting 49% of the global population. To explore the critical issue of electoral disinformation, the University of Sheffield’s School of Journalism, Media and Communications hosted a panel discussion on December 5. The event featured researchers from the MEDiA Project who presented findings from the project’s first phase.

Nicola Davies-Laubscher introduced the MEDiA Project, which aims to develop a methodological toolkit for systematically monitoring and analysing electoral disinformation in Africa. She explained that the first part of the study focused on providing an overview of the most prevalent disinformation narratives in recent African elections, as well as a typology of actors and strategies used to disseminate disinformation.

Drawing from interviews conducted in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, Davies-Laubscher highlighted the types of disinformation observed in these countries. While common themes such as attacks on electoral integrity and attempts to discredit the media emerged, country-specific narratives also stood out. In South Africa, xenophobia plays a central role in disinformation campaigns, while in Kenya, ethno-nationalism and ethnic stereotypes dominate. Zimbabwe’s disinformation landscape is shaped by the activities of online “armies” like the Varakashi, who support ZANU-PF President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and the Nerrorist, who back CCC leader Nelson Chamisa.

Fatoumata Sow, a member of MEDiA team, share the findings for Senegal and DRC, two French speaking countries in West and Central Africa.
In DRC, the main themes were: hate speeches, political violence, Rwanda’s intervention and interference in DRC elections and the integrity of the electoral process. All political actors were involved in the manipulation of information, using media outlets, digital armies and community organizations.

In Senegal, the dominant themes were: the pre-electoral violence and the alleged corruption of the members of the Constitutional Council, the sponsorship of presidential candidate, the jihadist threat and the location of polling stations. Besides the digital armies, Senegal encounters also a creation of a large number of online newspapers dedicated to disinformation.

The panel also included Sofia Gavrilova from the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Germany. She discussed narrative shifts in the recent Georgian parliamentary elections, where the campaign was framed as a conflict between war and peace — aligning with either Russia or the West. Fear was a recurring theme, with politicians depicting the country as “minutes away from a Putin invasion”. Another strong narrative in the region is the fear of a “third occupation”, referring to waves of Russian emigration into Georgia.

Lucy Westcott, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Emergencies Department, addressed the state of journalism safety, primarily focusing on the United States. She highlighted the potential risks journalists could face under a second Trump presidency, citing the January 6 insurrection as an example of targeted attacks on the press. Westcott also emphasised CPJ’s global work documenting assaults on journalists and providing security resources and support.