Although this is not a new phenomenon, fake news now has a much greater impact due to the power of social media. It regularly sets the Twittersphere ablaze and pollutes the internet at lightning speed. It is a viral and global phenomenon that affects all corners of the world and infiltrates the media universe to the point of manipulating public opinion. The African continent is not spared, particularly in 2018, when many countries went to the polls.
Many actors on the continent take the influence of algorithms and social media seriously. Initiatives are multiplying to actively combat the phenomenon.
Africa Check
On a pan-African scale, the Africa Check website has been operating since 2012 to promote accuracy and honesty in public debate and the media in Africa.
The organization has four official offices in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Lagos, and Dakar. In Senegal, the Africa Check office covers French-speaking Africa thanks to editor-in-chief Assane Diagne, who has been leading his team since 2015. This French version of the Africa Check website is an initiative developed by the AFP Foundation.
For Assane Diagne, the challenges of fact-checking in Africa boil down to access to and quality of data, but there is also a need to raise awareness, provide more training, and diversify the media and content of the results of fact-checking work.
Read: Interview with Assane Diagne, Editor-in-Chief of Africa Check – Francophone
Media literacy
In this regard, the French Media Development Agency (CFI) supports the online press sector in Africa through the implementation of the NAILA (New African Online Information Actors) project. This project aims to support the professionalization of certain online media outlets published in French-speaking Africa by assisting them in structuring and developing their economic and editorial models. It involves a dozen pre-selected pure players from French-speaking Africa. Workshops, training, and support are on the agenda, with a particular focus on web writing and investigation, including learning the basics of fact-checking.
Government initiatives
In the DRC, on July 3, the Association of Online News Media, created in 2017, initiated a first round table inviting the major players in the sector to discuss the following theme: "Fake News, Issues, Challenges, and Commitment of Stakeholders." Since its creation, the Association has stated its intention to combat the spread of false information in online media and social networks in the country by creating synergies between press professionals and local institutions.
In Côte d'Ivoire, this is happening at the state level, as last June, President Alassane Ouattara announced the creation of a law on fake news during the ceremony to present the HACA's annual report. This law, which will be introduced shortly, aims to better regulate the national press sector and further protect citizens from the false information that floods social media.
Commitment of local media
Finally, the media also understand that they have a role to play in this open war against fake news. They must be the guarantors of authentic and reliable information disseminated in their territory. In Côte d'Ivoire, RTI has recently made commitments to combat fake news.
The proliferation of media outlets and the challenge of immediacy sometimes pushes different media outlets to prioritize virality at the expense of factual accuracy. RTI, a public Ivorian channel with a strong digital presence, wishes to emphasize the importance of the media's role in verifying information. To this end, the channel's director general, Ahmadou Bakayoko, has announced the upcoming organization of the next "Fact Checking Conference." This will be an opportunity to involve all local media outlets in the fight against fake news.
Read: RTI organizes the first Fact Checking Conference
What about the responsibility of the web giants?
A growing awareness is also evident among the web giants. Facebook, in collaboration with AFP and Africa Check, recently launched a fact-checking program in several African countries. Senegal is currently the only French-speaking African country to benefit from this program, which verifies information published on local news feeds in order to improve the quality of content published on the social network.
In French-speaking Africa, as elsewhere, the war on fake news has now been declared. Awareness is growing, as are initiatives to verify facts in public debate, an approach to journalism that is gradually spreading across the continent.