Disinformation & Information Integrity

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Dynamics and contours of online disinformation based on perspectives from Nigerian internet users

Jude Nwakpoke Ogbodo, Agatha Obiageri Orji-Egwu, Emmanuel Ogbonna Njoku, Ogonnaya Lynda Ngwu

Discover Global Society, volume 4 (2026), 20 pp.

“This study examined how Nigerian social media and internet users experience, interpret, and respond to online disinformation. The study was guided by the Uses and Gratifications and Social Cognitive theories. It explored four interrelated research questions. A qualitative design was adopted, usin ... more

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Disinformation Campaigns in Africa: Actors, Consequences, and Responses

Admire Mare, Allen Munoriyarwa

New York: Bloomsbury Publishing (2026), 262 pp.

"Centering disinformation campaigns in Africa, this book examines typologies of false and misleading information and assesses the devastating consequences of disinformation. Admire Mare and Allen Munoriyarwa cover the key actors, consequences of, and responses to combat disinformation campaigns th ... more

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Automated Disinformation and Malicious AI Swarms: Risks for Democracy and Development in Africa

Daniel Thilo Schroeder, Philipp M. Lutscher, Samba Dialimpa Badji, Stefan Brenner, Wenchao Dong, Tsehaye Haidemariam, Saheed Bidemi Ibrahim, Amanuel Tesfaye Kebede, Jonas R. Kunst, Johannes Langguth, Pauline Lemaire, Mulatu Alemayehu Moges, Lukasz Olejnik, Kristin Skare Orgeret, Gerald Walulya

Online: arXiv, First (2026), 26 pp.

"Generative artificial intelligence is reshaping how information is produced, accessed, and circulated, while enabling disinformation campaigns of increasing scale and sophistication. There is currently no clear evidence that fully autonomous AI swarms conduct influence operations at scale, but thei ... more

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Hate Speech, Extremism and Propaganda

Emmanuel Bahindi, Antonio Kisembo, Echeru Rodney Oluma

Kampala: AI Media Lab, Media Challenge Initiative (2026), 29 pp.

"This paper traces how hateful rhetoric can escalate into dehumanisation and violence, while examining AI’s role in producing and distributing propaganda. It also considers automated detection and why technical classification alone cannot resolve the tension between countering hate and protecting ... more

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A Taxonomy of LLM-Supported Tasks for Critical AI Literacy in Journalism

Laurence Dierickx, Fredrik Bjerknes, Andreas L. Opdahl, Carl-Gustav Lindén

Postdigital Science and Education (2026), 23 pp.

"This paper develops a task-based taxonomy for integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into journalism education, drawing on task definitions from machine learning and natural language processing alongside journalism studies. Organised around four stages of the news workflow, newsgathering, sensema ... more

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Detecting and Countering AI-Enabled Disinformation

Emmanuel Bahindi, Antonio Kisembo, Echeru Rodney Oluma

Kampala: AI Media Lab, Media Challenge Initiative (2026), 18 pp.

"This paper follows AI-enabled disinformation from production through distribution and monetisation. It considers what detection tools can and cannot establish and places verification within the wider work of journalism and public communication. The practical value lies in helping readers recognise ... more

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Information Literacy: Countering Disinformation

Emmanuel Bahindi, Antonio Kisembo, Echeru Rodney Oluma

Uganda: AI Media Lab, Media Challenge Initiative (2026), 31 pp.

"This paper presents media and information literacy as a public defence against disinformation. It discusses the African literacy gap, the science of prebunking and inoculation, and practical functions for identifying, debunking and countering falsehoods without amplifying them. Journalists and educ ... more

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Election Disinformation and Political Communication

Emmanuel Bahindi, Antonio Kisembo, Echeru Rodney Oluma

Kampala: AI Media Lab, Media Challenge Initiative (2026), 29 pp.

"This paper examines how artificial intelligence can alter political communication and intensify election-related disinformation. It considers the actors, tactics and channels involved, then turns to the responsibilities of journalists and other institutions during electoral periods. Readers can use ... more

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Disinformation in Migration Reporting

Emmanuel Bahindi, Antonio Kisembo, Echeru Rodney Oluma

Kampala: AI Media Lab, Media Challenge Initiative (2026), 31 pp.

"This paper explores the production and spread of false narratives about migrants and refugees and the consequences for public understanding and safety. It places migration reporting within wider patterns of disinformation, including the use of emotionally charged claims and amplification. The discu ... more

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Deciphering authenticity in the age of AI: how AI-generated disinformation images and AI detection tools influence judgements of authenticity
Deep Insights

Key Guides

Aqsa Farooq, Claes de Vreese

AI & SOCIETY, volume 41 (2025), pp. 493–504

"An ongoing surge of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled false content has been spreading its way through the information ecosystem, including AI-generated images, which have been used as part of political disinformation campaigns. Thus, there remains a pressing need to understand which factors ind ... more

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Examining How Fact-checking Hubs Counter Information Disorder in Africa

Isiaka Zubair Aliagan, Habeeb Opeyemi Daranijo

Komunikator, volume 17, issue 1 (2025), pp. 52–62

“As fake news, misinformation, and communication disorders continue to raise societal concerns, several countermeasures are emerging to combat this growing challenge. This study examines the role of social media in the spread of information disorder in Africa and evaluates how effectively three pr ... more

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How Strategic Information Operations Affect Peacekeeping: Two Case Studies from the Central African Republic

Naomi Miyashita, Zarine Kharazian, Laura De Backer, Kate Starbird

International Peacekeeping, volume 32, issue 3 (2025), pp. 414-456

"Strategic information operations – efforts by individuals or groups to shape public opinion using propaganda, rumors and facts – pose significant challenges to peacekeeping missions. These operations undermine trust, hinder communication with the public and complicate the implementation of peac ... more

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Artificial Intelligence and Journalism: A Systematic Bibliometric and Thematic Analysis of Global Research

Mohammad Al Masum Molla, Md Manjurul Ahsan

Computers in Human Behavior Reports, volume 20 (2025), 21 pp.

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping journalistic practices across the globe, offering new opportunities while raising ethical, professional, and societal concerns. This study presents a comprehensive, second-generation systematic review of published articles on AI in journalism from 2010 to 2 ... more

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A Companion to Digital Ethics

Luciano Editors: Floridi, Mariarosaria Taddeo

Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Wiley-Blackwell, 1st (2025), 352 pp.

"This multidisciplinary reference work examines ethical challenges arising from digital technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, data use, online platforms and digital governance. Its relevance to COMMBOX lies especially in chapters on AI ethical principles, fairness and transparency, exp ... more

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AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning
Deep Insights

Karen Allen, Christopher Nehring

Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Media Programme Sub-Sahara Africa (2025), xii, 158 pp.

"While there are already several analyses and studies of AI disinformation in 2024 (particularly relating to elections), there are few transnational and transcontinental comparative studies of AI disinformation. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by providing a comparative analysis of AI disi ... more

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Guiding the way: a comprehensive examination of AI guidelines in global media

Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos, Wang Ngai Yeung, Tomás Dodds

AI & Society, volume 40, issue 4 (2025), pp. 2585–2603

"With the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the news industry, media organizations have begun publishing guidelines that aim to promote the responsible, ethical, and unbiased implementation of AI-based technologies. These guidelines are expected to serve journalists ... more

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Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections
Deep Insights

Dani Madrid-Morales, Herman Wasserman, Nicola Davies-Laubscher, Fatoumata Sow

Mapping Electoral Disinformation inAfrica (MEDiA); Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CIIA); Stellenbosch University (2025), 58 pp.

"In recent years, electoral disinformation has followed several recurring patterns globally, many of which were observed in the case studies analysed in this report. One prominent tactic is attacks on electoral integrity, where political actors spread false claims about voter registration, election ... rigging, or external interference to delegitimise outcomes. As we show in this report, in the DRC, for example, rumours circulated that biometric voter registration was designed to expose individuals’ HIV status, discouraging participation. In South Africa, disinformation networks falsely claimed that the Electoral Commission (IEC) was manipulating results to favour the ruling party, fueling distrust in the electoral process. Another trend is the weaponisation of ethnic and gendered disinformation. In Kenya, misleading narratives framed certain candidates as “foreign-sponsored outsiders” to undermine their legitimacy, while in Senegal, false claims about morality were used to discredit opposition figures. Meanwhile, gendered disinformation—targeting women candidates with sexist tropes and false accusations—was a recurring feature in all four countries, reflecting a broader global pattern in which women in politics are disproportionately subjected to online abuse and misinformation. Social media platforms have been central to the spread of electoral disinformation. Across Africa, as in much of the world, platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) have served as primary vehicles for the rapid dissemination of falsehoods, often facilitated by coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Data that we present in the report shows that, in South Africa, paid “nano-influencers”—individuals with small but loyal online followings—were mobilised to amplify misleading narratives in favour of specific political actors, demonstrating how disinformation strategies are evolving in response to changing digital landscapes. [...] In response to these findings, the report makes several key recommendations. First, it calls for greater cross-platform coordination among CSOs, fact-checking groups, and election monitors to ensure realtime responses to emerging disinformation threats. Second, it highlights the importance of media and digital literacy programmes among all age groups, including young voters, some of whom are often the most active on social media but may lack the skills to critically assess the credibility of information they encounter. Third, it urges greater transparency and accountability from technology platforms, which remain the primary distribution channels for electoral disinformation but have done little to curb its spread in African electoral contexts. Ultimately, electoral disinformation is not simply a digital challenge—it is a fundamental governance issue that shapes public perceptions of legitimacy and democratic participation. Evidence from the four elections in Africa that we examine in this report demonstrates that countering disinformation requires a multi-stakeholder approach that includes journalists, civil society actors, election commissions, and policymakers working collaboratively to strengthen information integrity and electoral transparency. The findings in this report offer both a diagnosis of the current disinformation landscape and a framework for more effective, evidence-based responses that can help safeguard future elections from manipulation." (Pages 9-10) more

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Fact-Checkers as New Journalistic Mediators: News Agencies’ Verification Units and Platform Dynamics

Regina Cazzamatta

Media and Communication, volume 13 (2025), 24 pp.

"This article examines how European international news agencies—Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), and EFE—engage with the emerging subgenre of external fact-checking journalism in response to (dysfunctional) hybrid media systems. Through a content analysis of 86 ... more

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Mapping the information integrity landscape in West Africa: An annotated bibliography

Zara Schoeder, Liz Orembo, Marie Batista

Cape Town: Research ICT Africa (2025), 26 pp.

"This annotated bibliography is organised into four sections. Section 1 demonstrates how disinformation emerges as the most prominent topic in the literature on information integrity. Several different kinds of agents of disinformation operate within West Africaʼs information sphere. These range fr ... om political actors and interest groups to foreign entities and social media influencers. Each exploits social fault lines to sway public opinion, particularly in the lead-up to elections and during conflicts. An organised network of influence narratives – which can sometimes be complex and include both local and foreign disinformation-for-hire merchants complemented by a network of informed but polarised citizens – forms part of the machinery of political campaigns. This machinery transcends elections to become a way of governance as governments continue to rely on it to deflect accountability and manipulate public discourse. Section 2 describes the events around which information disorders are promoted. During periods of political instability, elections, or armed conflicts, information disorders often emerge as key drivers of mass action. In these contexts, disinformation and hate speech are weaponised to incite violence, manipulate public sentiment, and deepen ethnic and religious divisions. Ethnicity and religion frequently become fault lines that disinformation campaigns exploit to divide communities and trigger mass actions such as violent protests, or for widespread voter manipulation. In the case of elections, disinformation is used to sway voter opinions by distorting candidatesʼ positions or spreading fabricated narratives about political opponents. Likewise, in conflict situations, armed groups and militant organisations may use information disorders to recruit new members by promoting extremist ideologies, spreading fear, or creating a sense of urgency. Politicians and conflict groups alike have learned to manipulate these divisions for their agendas, making information integrity a critical issue for social cohesion, democratic stability, and peacebuilding in the region. Section 3 covers literature on fact-checking as one of the measures to mitigate information disorders. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can scale up fact-checking efforts by detecting and scaling up the distribution of correct information. However, even using AI for fact-checking experiences significant limitations. For example, local languages make it hard for AI to detect disinformation and hate speech in all instances. When misinformation is shared on instant messaging platforms like Telegram channels it is also difficult for an ordinary user to detect. Section 4 covers media literacy as an antidote to information disorders, especially disinformation. UNESCO has been at the forefront of addressing information integrity issues in West Africa through its research and media literacy programmes. Recognising the role of accurate and reliable information in fostering peace, democracy, and development, UNESCO has sought to promote the importance of information integrity by partnering with governments, civil society organisations, and media outlets to combat disinformation. Additionally, UNESCOʼs media literacy programmes aim to empower citizens with the skills to critically evaluate and engage with information, fostering a more informed and resilient public.8 These initiatives are particularly important in an era where digital media plays such a significant role in shaping opinions and driving political discourse." (Introduction, pages 3-4) more

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WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Sahana Udupa, Herman Wasserman (eds.)

New York: New York University Press (2025), vii, 375 pp.

"Known by the popular nickname “ZapZap” in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, e ... more

Deciphering authenticity in the age of AI: how AI-generated disinformation images and AI detection tools influence judgements of authenticity Deep Insights Key Guides

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning Deep Insights

Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech Deep Insights

Deciphering authenticity in the age of AI: how AI-generated disinformation images and AI detection tools influence judgements of authenticity
Deep Insights

Key Guides

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning
Deep Insights

Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections
Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights