STATEMENT: LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION 2021 ANTI-DISINFORMATION PROJECT LAUNCHES
Busi Mtabane
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION 2021 ANTI-DISINFORMATION PROJECT LAUNCHES
Date: 1 September 2021
Release: Immediate
Today the 2021 Local Government Election Anti-Disinformation Project formally launches. A first-of-its-kind common-purpose "country duty" collaborative project against disinformation and misinformation.
The project's partners are:
● Phumzile Van Damme
● Right2Know
● Code For Africa
● Superlinear
● Dr David Rosenstein
● WITNESS
The project's partners will maintain their independence and, on a voluntary basis, collaborate to tackle disinformation in the lead up to the elections.
Each brings a variety of skills, expertise, tools, resources and experience. These include disinformation policy, fact-checking, research, data science, behavioural science, psychology, civic technology, communications rights and advocacy.
The project has three components:
● Disinformation monitoring and combatting focusing on online political discourse, messaging emanating from political parties and government.
● Advocacy focusing on Big Tech, PR firms and the use of video technology to expose human rights abuses and combat disinformation
● Behavioural Science aimed at understanding the believability of disinformation in South Africa
Over the last few months, the project's partners have collaborated to build a collaborative network that combines data science, tech tools, behavioural science, media and social analysis, fact-checking and civic education.
The project is in no way intended to infringe on the rights of South Africans to express their views freely online. Upholding the right to freedom of expression is a core tenet of the project.
We will carefully monitor and advocate against any attempts of censorship, particularly by the government. There has been a concerning clampdown on social media by African leaders – "digital authoritarianism." In June 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter after the platform deleted one of his tweets and temporarily suspended his account. In the same month, the eSwatini government temporarily blocked access to the internet to silent pro-democracy protests in the country. An election-related example of censorship and digital authoritarianism happened in Uganda in January 2021. The government ordered a social media ban ahead of its presidential election after Facebook removed 220 fake accounts linked to its Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.
In its first phase, the project will focus on public education about disinformation and misinformation in its nature, identifying it and its associated terms.
Many more initiatives will be announced in the coming weeks, and of course, any disinformation or influence operations detected. The project will compile its findings into a final report.
It is an honour to do "country duty" for South Africa against a problem that not only exists online but has real-life consequences that often escalates during election season. This year COVID-19 has made the social media terrain even more fertile for disinformation. COVID-19 has created what the World Health Organisation calls an "infodemic." This happens when there is an overload of information, disinformation and misinformation in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak.
Disinformation - false, inaccurate and misleading information spread deliberately to deceive and manipulate the public for profit or political gain; and misinformation, disinformation shared without intention to mislead - requires urgent action in South Africa.
It has contributed to continued damage of South Africa's social fabric with disinformation deliberately created to exploit the differences of the people of South Africa. This has led to further polarisation and discrimination on the grounds of race, culture, religion, nationality, gender, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and others continuing unabated.
The continued exploitation of racial differences, a disinformation strategy not new to South Africa, one we saw used by the now-defunct PR firm Bell Pottinger to provide cover for state capture.
Disinformation and misinformation have had deadly consequences in South Africa contributing to unprecedented violence since the advent of democracy in the country. The July 2021 unrest is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of 337 people. In eThekwini alone, it is estimated to have caused 129 000 jobs losses and over R16 billion in damages to property.
For democracy, the effects of online disinformation and misinformation have been identified by experts as a major threat to democracy.
During an election season, disinformation is often spread to skew public discourse and manipulate voters.
For an election to be free and fair, voters need to have accurate information about parties, candidates and other factors in order to inform their voting decisions. For this to happen, disinformation needs to be removed from the equation. While South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission Code of Conduct prohibits political parties from publishing false information, this does not necessarily mean that this is followed.
Of equal importance, election strategies and messaging that use disinformation to pit South Africa's racial groups against each other damage public discourse, create tensions, and have the potential to cause race-based violence.
Similarly, those who campaign on disinformation-laden messaging about foreign nationals also create the potential for xenophobic violence, which would not be unprecedented in South Africa.
Disinformation-fuelled election violence is a real threat to the South African election. There have been recent examples on the African continent. Ahead of the Central African Republic elections in December 2020, rival French and Russian disinformation campaigns are alleged to have sought to deceive and influence internet users in the country. The disinformation is said to have increased tensions in the country, leading to mistrust about the election's outcome, leading to a surge of violence. In Ethiopia, killing a human rights activist in June 2020 led to ethnic conflict stoked by disinformation and incitement to violence. It ultimately led to what is now a war in the Tigran region of the country, which continues today.
The rights to freedom of expression, association, political participation, life, privacy, thought, and others must be upheld and protected.
Hate Speech and disinformation are a threat to these rights.
We urge all South Africans to join us in helping us in this cause. We cannot sit on our hands and wait for someone to save us. The responsibility is ours.
ENDS
Media Enquiries:
Nick Cowen
062 179 8597
ni...@disinformationproject.org
Community Media Enquiries
Gamane Gama
081 256 1806
gam...@disinformationproject.org
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION 2021 ANTI-DISINFORMATION PROJECT PARTNERS
Phumzile Van Damme: Van Damme is an Independent Consultant on Misinformation Combating and Communications Strategy and an expert on misinformation. She has spoken on the subject on various platforms, including the UN. Van Damme is a member of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and former Member of Parliament in South Africa where she served as Shadow Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies. Her interest in the subject began in 2017 when she led the charge to bring to justice one of the world's biggest PR firms, Bell Pottinger, which had run a disinformation campaign that exploited racial tensions in South Africa. Her work on Bell Pottinger was the subject of a documentary, "Influence," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020.
Right 2 Know: Right2Know is a democratic, activist-driven organisation that strengthens and unites citizens to raise public awareness, mobilise communities and undertake research and targeted advocacy aimed at ensuring the free flow of information. It focuses on three main areas - access to information, communication rights, and state transparency.
Code for Africa: Code for Africa is the continent’s largest network of civic technology and data journalism labs, with teams in 20 countries. It builds digital democracy solutions that give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions and strengthens civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability. This includes building infrastructure like the continent’s largest open data portals.
Superlinear: Superlinear uses data science to analyse social media conversations around South Africa’s political landscape. For several years, Superlinear has tracked conversations on Twitter, giving a bird’s eye view of political debates in the country. Superlinear’s analysis has allowed the South African public to take a step back to see the wood for the trees around the larger social and political machinations taking place.
WITNESS: WITNESS is a human rights non-profit organisation that partners with on-the-ground organisations to support the documentation of human rights violations and their consequences to further public engagement, policy change, and justice. It equips activists, lawyers, journalists, and marginalised communities with the skills, tools, and capabilities to use video and technology effectively. The project will work with Adebayo Okeowo the Africa Program Manager at WITNESS.
Dr David Rosenstein: Dr David Rosenstein is an experienced clinical psychologist, neuroscientist and cognitive behaviour therapist. He is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Cape Town, where he supervises clinical cases in the Psychiatry Department and Masters/Doctoral level research at the Department of Marketing.
Sent on behalf of R2K by: Busi Mtabane
Right2Know Communicator
083 329 7844
bu...@r2k.org.za 
More about the Right2Know Campaign:
www.r2k.org.za | @r2kcampaign | @r2kcampaign | @r2kcampaign