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Fake ‘EU travel news’ seeks to undermine reforming #Zimbabwe

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Democracies all around the world are facing an epidemic of fake news, with the trend also targeting developing nations, writes Tony Mallett. 



The deluge of fake stories that aim to sway populations first came to the fore in the West during the US election in 2016, spread to Europe, and is now appearing in countries such as Africa’s Zimbabwe. 

The reforming nation regularly sees fake stories circulated on social media and websites, often seeking to discredit the government.

Most recently a fake news story spread on social media platform WhatsApp claiming that (sic) “The European Union EU have issued a travel warning to its citizens” against traveling to Zimbabwe. This was blatantly false as the EU has issued no such warning.

In fact, the EU mission in Zimbabwe has not issued any statements or tweets since the beginning of the year. The travel advice regarding Zimbabwe offered by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, dates back to January 15th and affirms that the situation in Zimbabwe is “normalizing”.

By contrast, the recently circulated WhatsApp message claimed that “the reports coming from the Souther (sic) African country Zimbabwe reveals that all is not well and that massive labour protests are to occur nation wide”.

This was the latest poorly written attempt clearly aimed at undermining the efforts of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in the process of implementing wide-ranging reforms to stabilize the Zimbabwean economy.

These attempts come after decades of misrule by former president Robert Mugabe that brought the former ‘bread basket of Africa’ to its knees.

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The Zimbabwean government is often targeted by fake stories that circulate on websites. For example, last Friday (24 May), ZWnews.com claimed that a coup was imminent, with Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and the army about to oust President Mnangagwa.

Headlined ‘Chiwenga, Army to oust Mnangagwa through Operation Restore Economy coup’, the story claimed that “well placed military intelligence sources” had signalled that the president would be forced to resign “after failing to resolve Zimbabwe’s economic crisis”.

Zimbabwe is not the first developing country to be targeted in this way, nor will it be the last. But in a country with a young population that increasingly gets its news via the internet, such misinformation can have a huge impact.

Local websites such as ZimLive.com, dailynews.co.zw, ZimEye.net, regularly publish stories that are speculative and based on rumour, without any fact checking. They have taken advantage of the free media environment encouraged by the government to actually undermine the credibility of the mainstream media.

There have been calls for the opposition, particularly MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, to distance itself from such fake stories and to engage constructively with the government to resolve the many challenges facing the country.

Instead Chamisa rejected Mnangagwa’s overtures for dialogue during the Opposition’s congress in the city of Gweru this weekend and spoke of potential bloodshed and destruction “when we do what we will do after congress,” urging his supporters to prepare for protests.

The opposition has called for a 'Total & Final Shutdown!!!' for the week beginning 27 May via social media, threatening those that don’t want to participate. “If you decide to come to work during the stay away or to open your shop, do not cry fowl (sic) when rowdy elements, taking advantage of the citizens stay away destroy damage or loot your shop.”

Coupled with a slew of fake news and misinformation, such orchestrated protests (that have turned violent in the past) are unlikely to improve the situation in Zimbabwe, which has long been burdened by EU and US sanctions.

Fake news is often geared towards pursuing a narrow political agenda, by galvanizing a population into anger or political action, but many argue this can only weaken democracy in the long term.

Recently the BBC took on the subject matter in a story entitled Is Facebook Undermining Democracy in Africa, describing how the social media giant allowed its platform to be weaponized for co-ordinated misinformation and systematic deception campaigns.

Pointing out that Facebook is beloved by younger Africans, who form the majority of the electorate in most African countries and are most likely to be influenced online, the article quoted Rebecca Enonchong, a Cameroonian tech entrepreneur, as saying: “People that use these networks actually feel that this information is coming from Facebook, not realizing that it’s a third party putting the information there.”

In fact, in a new report, Facebook has said it saw “a steep increase in the creation of abusive, fake accounts” and removed more than three billion in the six months from October to March.

Any political weaponizing of fake news, certainly in a case such as Zimbabwe’s, could bring about a serious obstruction to a much-needed reform process.

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