TECHCABAL
For many observers, one of the signs that Twitter was taking its African market seriously was its decision to open an office on the continent. Twitter is the second-most-used social media platform in Africa and has around 5 million Nigerian users. For many Africans, the ease of getting information is perhaps Twitter’s most compelling use case.
It meant that Twitter needed to take the budding problems of misinformation and fake news in its African market seriously. Yet, in 2022, the company laid off its 20-person African team. A decision that left many scratching their heads because the team was so small and served an entire continent. The team had staff for content curation, sales, policy, and communications. That decision also prompted questions about Twitter’s commitment to fighting fake news on the continent.
An absence of oversight
Twitter’s African team was set up to ensure that the content shared on its platform was accurate. The staff were Africans and could identify falsehoods being shared on the platform in African languages, which was a key reason for the team being of African origin. The work of the team would have been essential, as several African countries will take to the polls this year to elect new leaders.
According to Semafor, the former Twitter Africa team had started educating African journalists on how to spot false information and share fact-based responses on Twitter in preparation for the elections. The team also curated tweets to discredit false information during the last election in Kenya and had plans to replicate that in Nigeria.
But the layoffs that happened last year have prevented this from happening and may make it easier for misinformation to spread on Twitter. Twitter’s current stance on addressing misinformation, according to the company, is to rely on “external, subject matter experts”. However, judging by how rampant fake news has become on the platform in Nigeria leading up to the election, this approach may be ineffective.
Fake news and false rumours have always been a staple in African elections, but the hope was that with a team on the continent focused on dispelling false information, things would change. The effects of the layoffs have instead left us with a different reality.
Fake news spread like wildfire
Research has shown that fake or false information, especially political news, spreads faster on Twitter than the truth. These falsehoods are shared 10 times as much as the truth. This week, the Central Bank of Nigeria said that a memo that was circulating on Twitter…
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