How African Journalists Are Leading Twitter’s Battle Against Fake News
In this interview with Rilwan Muhammad, Nneka Chile speaks on the challenge of disinformation and misinformation in Africa and how her team’s work at Twitter is helping to shape credible and impactful digital conversations across the continent. You moved from Reuters, Nigeria to Twitter as a content curator for Africa. Tell us about your […]
In this interview with Rilwan Muhammad, Nneka Chile speaks on the challenge of disinformation and misinformation in Africa and how her team’s work at Twitter is helping to shape credible and impactful digital conversations across the continent.
You moved from Reuters, Nigeria to Twitter as a content curator for Africa. Tell us about your journey, what motivated that transition, and how different is it working with a global
social media platform compared to a traditional newsroom?
My journey has been interesting. I moved into this role last three months and prior to that I was the deputy lead, visuals producer at Thomson Reuters and I had been in that role for four years,
managing stringers, churning the best stories across the 36 states of Nigeria, and to an international audience. Well, I feel very, very excited. I’m very, very honored.
I feel like the focus on Africa, that Twitter has sort of spotlighted, is in the right direction and I’m very proud to be part of that journey. I do not think I had a very interesting motivation. I just felt like it was the right time, especially because social media has become a more established information portal for
news consumption and a growing one at that. I mean traditional newsrooms still holds the forte with print and broadcast but these emerging platforms are becoming very important and appealing to younger audiences. A lot of people are reading news on social platforms so it was the right call for me to experience that and also because I worked in a digital first newsroom (Reuters). We had a huge strategy around news on social media platforms so I am indeed taking
my learnings from that into this new role.
I am keen on being a pioneer in audience engagement and content strategy on socials so this is really the step in the right direction. I want to see how Africa embraces social media, especially when it comes to news consumption and also aiding efforts when it comes to platform integrity for Africans, which includes healthy information consumption on these platforms.
In April, you and other Nigerians joined Twitter as part of its Africa expansion in Ghana. What was the significance of this move, and how has it influenced Twitter’s strategy for content curation and audience engagement across the continent?
My relocation to Ghana was partly a requisite for Twitter Africa staff and also a business decision. Following the Nigerian government ban of Twitter at some point, the country was flagged as a hostile business environment. The significance of that was enormous, so moving to Ghana, which is much more press friendly, was the next call. And so far, it’s been very good, so I wouldn’t say there’s any candid significance for the move on my part. I would say it was partly the team’s requisite to move, even though our goal for the Twitter team is to serve the Nigerian market, especially as content curators, because that’s the largest market in Africa.
The move was to provide a safe place to work. So initially the market was Nigeria, but now we have Ghana and some parts of West Africa and East Africa on a case to case basis. It’s generally Africa, but we’re focusing on the largest markets and also supporting small markets. So that’s what our strategy is right now.
One of Twitter’s promises to Africans is tackling misinformation and disinformation on the platform. Can you walk us through how your work approaches this challenge, particularly in high-stakes contexts like elections and political discourse?
I am unable to walk you through the company’s strategy, however, my goal is really to build up solid strategies around how to tackle disinformation on the platform, what the nuances are, and
how reactive we should be when we identify this. Generally, we are also exploring collaborations with local journalists to counter these narratives. My team comprises experts in fact-checking, storytelling and content strategy. We are simulating different scenarios that could play out during
an African election, how the information also plays out on the platform, and how we address any misinformation.
We consider the platform an important one for formal and expert discussion, and we know bad actors leverage the seeming authenticity of the discussion on Twitter to purport unoriginal and fake content. So we are going to be looking at those scenarios and seeing how we can literally mitigate such scenarios, like claims by political figures, election officials or regular users. We’ve seen that play out in Nigeria and we all witnessed the reaction with the President’s
tweet, which I covered as well, and the impact it had on small businesses. We saw how that played out and how people reacted to the information gap because of the Twitter ban in Nigeria. So we play out such scenarios and set measures in place in such instances.
Having worked around elections in Africa, via your bio, what patterns of disinformation have you observed, and how would Twitter’s content curation strategy address these unique challenges for upcoming ones.
I think for Africa, we have it all, especially because our disinformation tactics are crude and not as sophisticated as you see. However, we witness some very sophisticated misinformation networks go intense with the tactics during elections, which we believe are really sponsored by external state actors, in an attempt to influence outcomes on the continent, but domestically, we have ones that are really peculiar. One such is the circulation of deepfake videos of political leaders across party lines, elections and more. But day-to-day, we also see similar ones like health disinformation, which is very prevalent in Africa, because we have bad actors trying to sell fake products or also scam people. So we have a lot of people who are paid African influencers doing this and it’s almost like a syndicate group, a broad network doing this. But the ones I think most concerning at Twitter are sponsored disinformation and misinformation regarding elections, that are quite able to influence, and undermine democratic processes in Africa. We’ve seen a lot of that play out in very diverse ethnic and multicultural nations, how social misinformation can really cause violence. We are also keen on those stoking anti-Western and anti United Nations sentiments on social media platforms. For us, the strategy is to be very reactive in taking them down in a way that is a bit more structured and based on policies and platform guidelines which we’ve fondly done. So we’re building that strategy, but these
disinformation tactics are very known to everyone. Another growing one, worth mentioning is AI manipulation globally. Those ones that are kind of like a shift because they do not look real. We’re seeing that coming up as well and we’re looking forward to mitigating these potential challenges.
How has your experience as a journalist shaped your approach to curating content and countering disinformation on Twitter?
Journalism is storytelling. And in storytelling, you’re researching and fact-checking so I’d say it’s all encompassing. But I would say my background in fact checking has also been useful. An
aspect of my work at Reuters, which I rarely talk about, is User Generated Content (UGC) verification. For every breaking news story, we scan socials for first-hand UGC photos and videos to complement the work that we were doing when it comes to information generation and information dissemination. And so that means, I am constantly fact-checking contents and
verifying their authenticity. One example is the viral story of the kidnapped Katsina schoolboys last year. My job at the time included verifying user generated content, I mean scanning the
internet, finding user content and checking their veracity. So I am taking that experience into Twitter, in the work, counter disinformation on a larger scale and stopping fake news from spreading. The workflow involves finding verifiable sources to back that up and use journalistic skills to see if this is the truth, if it’s accurate, if the narrative is objective as well. And if it’s not, taking them down? So I would say journalism in a more reactive way. It’s just an active work stream with some cross-collaborative team work.
There is often a gap between how African issues are represented globally and how they are discussed locally. How do you balance amplifying authentic African voices while also ensuring the platform remains safe from harmful narratives?
I think one thing I love about Twitter, prior to joining the social media platform, is the team’s strategy on amplifying credible voices with its verification stamp. The white checkmark, right? And so that is in a way just another layer in amplifying authentic voices. But in the context of
Africa, it’s a new and emerging market. There is a context of the various approaches when it comes to amplifying voices and new markets. So because we don’t have a creator pipeline on the
platform, the team is focused on amplifying authentic voices across various sectors. What I look forward to seeing is amplifying journalistic voices, broadcasters and storytellers. Those are
important on the platform, but also we will be amplifying African influencers so people who we think or believe are of repute and leaders in sectors like health, economy, and even recognised
political figures. That’s something I will be focusing on. And so the outcome of the platform is quite important to us. We also want to leverage partnerships with newsrooms as well. And we’ll
be doing that in tandem with curating news content that is safe, that is credible, that is authentic, backing it up with a lot of local reporting .
So far, what are the noticeable impacts of your team’s work in curating and flagging disinformation on the platform, particularly in Nigeria or across West Africa?
For now we are working towards the Kenya elections and completing the Nigerian primaries. I think those are the priorities. But we are looking forward to Nigerian elections, I call it the
mother of African elections. I think those are specific examples where we’ll be flagging disinformation and we hope to create a framework using those elections for other elections. But just to point, while my market is Africa, I am supporting the curation efforts across the EMEA market and often the US and India. So we are gathering and learning from other continents, and embedding them in our framework for Africa election coverage. But particularly Nigeria, I think the discourse will be different this year. We know that Nigeria’s party system is somewhat
two-party like but now we are seeing a third wheel emerging and gaining a lot of momentum. So I want to see how that will play out. I think the quality of discourse will really be about voting
rights, polling information, a recurring page for emerging misinformation, backed with credible sourcing. We are feeding from local journalists across various regions to see what important
discussions need to be amplified on the platform. So we’re already training them on how to use Twitter products like moments for publishing and more.We’re also ensuring that what users see
on the platform is literally informative and not just general conversations. So that’s why curation is quite important in this instance.
One of the criticisms of social media platforms is that users often distrust moderation policies. How does your role engage with building trust among African users while enforcing rules on disinformation and harmful content?
I think this discussion on how moderation policies are really stringent on platforms, is rather interesting. No one wants content that is borderline offensive and egregious. Maintaining the integrity of the platform and ensuring that the rules apply to all and not some is important, but also understanding the African nuances is important. So I am keen on educating people on the
platform rules and guidelines for socials. As a user myself, I find it jarring when I see some content and it does not encourage me to go back to that platform. So it’s about rules and
guidelines, don’t violate those rules. A handful of content are available but some are not fit for the platform, such as hate speech, pornography… We’re also focusing on other things like scams,
spammy, spamming captions on platforms. Social platforms are conversation starters, an important place to build communities, but so is moderation important. So I do not see any way where moderation goes away in the near future. I believe that moderation is key, especially because it’s a huge platform and conversations start on Twitter, very often, spill into other
platforms. And that’s why the work I do is important.
Being among the first recruits for Twitter in Africa comes with its own challenges. What were some of the hurdles you faced stepping into this pioneering role, and how did you navigate them?
Well, I do not think there will be any hurdles. I am very fortunate to be one of the pioneering teams setting the blueprint for others to join. I think the most challenging thing would be
building strategies from the ground up. Everything is about testing, building frameworks based on our knowledge of the market and iterating when posed with new information. As mentioned
earlier, we are also consulting with our colleagues in established markets and marrying the ideas we have with what they know and their knowledge. And so that will be the most challenging
thing. So, for example, the Kenya elections, we are working with local partnerships and local organizations to kind of understand the market much better. So navigating that will take a while. We’ll be iterating, producing and curating. But that’s the beauty of working in curation where you are focused on a market and understanding how your market reacts to information, news and
how they consume election content. So those are the kinds of areas I think will be challenging, but I would say my team is the best for it, so we’re working towards that as well and we have
excellent leaders.
Finally, looking into the future of social media in Africa, what role do you see platforms like Twitter playing in strengthening democracy, countering disinformation, and amplifying African voices globally?
The future of social media in Africa… I think social media is here to stay globally. In Africa, it’s going to be expanding. We’re seeing a lot of social media companies focus their efforts in Africa and rightfully so. I like that there is a shift from the global market to Africa because we have the numbers. We are now part of the global conversations for emerging markets. In terms of strengthening democracy, countering disinformation and amplifying African voices, I think there will be more efforts towards that. I believe that elections in Africa are such a huge deal because
we’ve had cases where a lot of like Western influences. However, there’s a shift too. Social platforms now understand they are culpable for information on their platform and taking
responsibility. I like the effort and it’s here to stay. My only hope is that a lot of governments support these efforts with accessible data and right policies. I mean, this is like the fourth arm of democracy, if i do say so myself, which should be top of mind to most governments and democratic leaders in general and globally. If governments partner with these organizations very much, I think we’ll have a very safe social media space. But we are not there yet. But I feel like the future of social media is bright in Africa. My contribution will be to put out a lot of good work, ensure platform safety for users and establish good partnerships with local journalists. I also want to see advertising made accessible on the platform for small-medium sized businesses and have Africa on the map as an emerging market that uses social media responsibly. That’s what the future looks like to me.