Facebook pages associated with seven Uganda-based news websites were removed for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour on 8 January, six days before the country’s presidential elections. Journalists, editors, and founders of the websites were included in the large network that Facebook linked to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology’s Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC). In total, the corresponding Facebook pages of the seven websites had more than 119,000 total followers.
Two of the linked websites, gorillanationug.com and pfu.co.ug, were inaccessible. Five of the other websites –
The Niles Wires,
, Kampala Times, Kampala Post, and
The Ugandan – presented as news websites. Three of these websites copied content directly from the official website of the governing party, National Resistance Movement (NRM), presenting the content as news. Opinion pieces that were vehemently anti-opposition leader Bobi Wine were also lifted, without at
By Tessa Knight for DFRLab• 12 January 2021
Supporters of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, otherwise known as Bobi Wine, run from tear gas fired by police during his presidential campaign in Kampala, Uganda 30 November 2020. The Ugandan Presidential Elections are due to take place on the 14 January 2021 and have so far been marred by violence with 45 supporters of Bobi Wine killed by security forces last week whilst protesting the arrest of Ssentamu during an election rally. EPA-EFE/STR
Facebook removes the dodgy network and attributes it to the Ugandan government after a DFRLab investigation, as Twitter also closes suspicious accounts.
A network of public relations firms, news organisations and inauthentic social media accounts engaged in a coordinated campaign to promote Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ahead of the country’s January 14 2021 presidential election. A DFRLab investigation of the network – which began as part of its ongoing analysis of pre-election activity –