The South African government has played an instrumental role in peddling disinformation on issues of national importance, such as the ongoing energy crisis and other socio-economic issues, via social media and other platforms.
This was the sentiment shared by Lord Robin Renwick, former British ambassador to SA, and former member of the House of Lords, speaking this week during a roundtable discussion at the Forum on Disinformation and Information Operations in Africa, which took place in Cape Town.
The full-day conference saw representatives from various entities − including embassies, US-based venture capital firm C5 Capital, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Constella Intelligence and the Atlantic Council − come together to discuss the intersection between disinformation and cyber security in Africa – a trend they say has led to SA and the rest of the continent “drowning” in disinformation.
During a discussion dialogue titled: “Peace-building in an era of disinformation format”, Renwick noted disinformation is on the rise in Africa, with perpetrators of disinformation campaigns increasingly becoming domestic politicians who intentionally mislead societies because of a political agenda.
Disinformation, which has been largely boosted by an increase in internet penetration and growing social media use, is defined as false or misleading information deliberately spread, in order to influence public opinion.
The South African government, among other actors, said Renwick, has played a key role in the dissemination of disinformation in the country, particularly on key issues such as load-shedding, the recently declared state of disaster and corruption.
It has created a false narrative about these issues through societal manipulation aimed at deflecting attention from its own flaws, he noted.
“South Africans are fed disinformation everyday – of a much more passive kind. For instance, they are told every day that they suffer from load-shedding but this is not true – it is not load-shedding at all; what the country is suffering from is power cuts.
“The government and the press deliberately use the words ‘load-shedding’, because they don't want to use the words ‘power cuts’ as they would attract more concern from those who will want to get something done about it.”
Coined by government in 2007, the term load-shedding refers to a way to distribute demand for electrical power, across multiple power sources.
As SA continues to experience unprecedented power cuts, the electricity crisis has disrupted all sectors of business and the economy, putting jobs at risk, in a country that is already struggling with a high unemployment rate.
The electricity shortage in SA is so severe that power utility Eskom has implemented around the clock power cuts. Yesterday, load-shedding reached stage seven.
According to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, Africa is witnessing a growing trend of domestic political actors deploying targeted disinformation schemes, with several countries − including SA, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo and Sudan − said to be perpetrators.
In general cases of digital disinformation, perpetrators are often outsiders from countries such as Russia, US and parts of Asia, it says.
Maintaining integrity
During his State of the Nation Address earlier this month, president Cyril Ramaphosa declared the energy crisis a national disaster, so that government can respond to the electricity crisis and its effects.
However, Renwick believes this is another deceptive strategy used by the government to deflect attention away from its own flaws.
“A national disaster normally refers to something inflicted on the country by an external cause, such as the pandemic. It's rather unusual to declare a state of disaster when it's an entirely self-inflicted disaster.
“It is inflicted by government because over the last 30 years, government has failed to appoint independent power producers – which is the only solution to the power crisis,” he continued.
Mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s accusations in December, of Eskom actively agitating for the overthrowing of government by failing to end load-shedding, is another form of dissemination of disinformation by a state actor, asserted Renwick.
He urged diplomats to stop falsehoods by painting a better picture than the current state of affairs, pointing out: “It is better to tell the truth, because this kind of methodology creates so much damage. We need to be careful to maintain integrity.”
Questions sent by ITWeb to Eskom and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy were not responded to by the time of publication.
According to the panellists, in SA, disinformation campaigns and ever-increasing cyber attacks have negatively impacted local economic and social growth, while posing a serious threat by misleading the general public to depend on falsehoods to make “informed” decisions.
Noelle van der Waag-Cowling, cyber programme lead for cyber and strategic studies at the Stellenbosch University Security Institute for Governance & Leadership in Africa, also participated in the discussion.
According to Van der Waag-Cowling, the impact of disinformation in Africa is felt more now than ever before, as a result of conflict, societal disruptions such as load-shedding, and during periods leading up to elections.
“Africa is a battleground of disinformation campaigns shaped by issues of conflict. In SA, this has lately been attributed to the sheer amount of load-shedding, among other factors.
“African governments tend to underestimate disinformation, due to the lower levels of internet penetration. There is a misconception that the continent is cyber immune to the ills that take place online.
“But what we’ve seen is a radical shift in cyber actors who have targeted the continent. We face cumulate risk due to decades of underspending on technologies and human resources to combat these threats,” she explained.
Professor Sibusiso Vil-Nkomo, executive dean of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, reflected on the evolving disinformation challenges and the need for closer cooperation between governments, academia and the private sector.
He noted, over the last three years, the digital presence of private and public entities increased exponentially in scope and opportunity for malicious actors to disseminate disinformation, resulting in reputational damage and financial loss for organisations and entities.
"We need to prepare for the conflicts of the future, and disinformation will be the main weapon of these conflicts. Democracy, prosperity and even human rights might be the object of hybrid threats. We need to understand how these threats work if we want to safeguard our societies," said Vil-Nkomo.
Andre Pienaar, CEO and founder of C5 Capital, pointed out that most recently, disinformation campaigns have been used to influence the outcome of elections, spread false medical data about COVID-19 and lay the groundwork for cyber attacks on the continent.
"Disinformation is increasingly a tactic used by hackers to deceive individual targets, enterprises, governments and nations. The best antidote for disinformation is an open conversation in South Africa, journalists with integrity and a society capable of critical thinking,” commented Pienaar.
Checking the facts
Responding to ITWeb’s questions on whether government has played a key role in the dissemination of disinformation, Cayley Clifford, deputy chief editor at fact-checking non-profit Africa Check, says the current government has showed a marked improvement from the past, when the country had a government that thrived on secrecy and suppression of information.
“Access to information is a right guaranteed by South African law. Government and public officials have a responsibility to ensure the information they share is accurate.
“This has not always been the case, evidenced by many of the fact checks on our website highlighting false and misleading claims by those in government. Whether these false claims are part of disinformation campaigns that deliberately seek to mislead the public, it is difficult to say. But their effect is the same − when people don’t have access to accurate information, they cannot make informed decisions.”
According to Clifford, SA has seen a sharp rise in hyper-partisanship in public debate. This has created fertile ground for disinformation and is fuelled by a loss of trust in traditional information providers.
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