Interesting piece about how a coordinated disinformation campaign online claiming a coup was underway in Côte d’Ivoire threw thousands into panic in May 2025.
Côte d’Ivoire is currently experiencing high political tensions, after the authorities banned multiple popular presidential hopefuls from running in the October election, paving the way for a fourth term by the current president Alassane Ouattara, 82, one of the last openly pro-Western leaders in Francophone West Africa.
The disinformation campaign was articulated around a coordinated flood of posts displaying sensational headlines from spoofed international media’s homepages, AI-generated reporters, and footage of African soldiers roaming the streets of an unidentified city, claiming President Ouattara had been overthrown by the army, racking up millions of views across multiple platforms and causing panic among parts of the population and the diaspora.
This investigation shows that self-styled “anti-imperialist” and “pan-Africanist” influencers across the world were at the core of the campaign, with Côte d’Ivoire’s Communication Minister alleging its origins were traced to ‘neighboring countries’ – a veiled accusations towards the AES countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, whose ruling military juntas have enacted a pivot towards Moscow following their takeovers in the early 2020s.
The campaign bears troubling similarities with previous instances of Russian disinformation campaigns targeting Western countries, although Moscow’s direct involvement is not proven at this stage.
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!ping AFRICA
Interesting piece about how a coordinated disinformation campaign online claiming a coup was underway in Côte d’Ivoire threw thousands into panic in May 2025.
Côte d’Ivoire is currently experiencing high political tensions, after the authorities banned multiple popular presidential hopefuls from running in the October election, paving the way for a fourth term by the current president Alassane Ouattara, 82, one of the last openly pro-Western leaders in Francophone West Africa.
The disinformation campaign was articulated around a coordinated flood of posts displaying sensational headlines from spoofed international media’s homepages, AI-generated reporters, and footage of African soldiers roaming the streets of an unidentified city, claiming President Ouattara had been overthrown by the army, racking up millions of views across multiple platforms and causing panic among parts of the population and the diaspora.
This investigation shows that self-styled “anti-imperialist” and “pan-Africanist” influencers across the world were at the core of the campaign, with Côte d’Ivoire’s Communication Minister alleging its origins were traced to ‘neighboring countries’ – a veiled accusations towards the AES countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, whose ruling military juntas have enacted a pivot towards Moscow following their takeovers in the early 2020s.
The campaign bears troubling similarities with previous instances of Russian disinformation campaigns targeting Western countries, although Moscow’s direct involvement is not proven at this stage.
For further information, Forbidden Stories did an interesting piece on the Russian disinformation architecture in Africa last year -> https://forbiddenstories.org/projects_posts/the-propaganda-machine-2/