

Kenyatta, and got certain hashtags like #phonyleaks and #offshoreaccountfacts to appear on Twitter’s dedicated sidebar for trending topics by posting the hashtag repeatedly. The 1,935 accounts that they found had participated in the campaign tweeted for days only about the Pandora Papers and Mr. They found a campaign of nearly 5,000 tweets with thousands of likes and shares that was “clearly inauthentic” and “coordinated to feign public support,” according to the research. Kenyatta in the Pandora Papers over a four-week period. Madung and another researcher, Brian Obilo, looked at over 10,000 tweets discussing mentions of Mr.

“We are constantly improving Twitter’s auto-detection technology to catch accounts engaging in rule-violating behavior as soon as they pop up on the service.” “Our top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant about coordinated activity on our service,” Ms. Internal documents obtained by the former Facebook product manager turned whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, repeatedly showed how the social network failed to adequately police hate speech and misinformation in countries outside North America, where 90 percent of its users reside.Īnn-Marie Lowry, a Twitter spokeswoman, said in a statement that the company’s uniquely open nature empowered research such as Mozilla’s. The research underscores how online platforms based in the United States still struggle to police inauthentic behavior abroad. “Kenyan Twitter was awash in Pandora Paper astroturfing,” he said. “Like clockwork, an alternative sentiment quickly emerged, supporting the president and his offshore accounts,” said Odanga Madung, a fellow at Mozilla and an author of the report.


The effort generated thousands of messages supporting the president, whose term is ending, and criticizing the release of the documents. The findings, part of the leaked documents known as the Pandora Papers, initially generated outrage online among Kenyans.īut within days, that sentiment was hijacked on Twitter by a coordinated misinformation campaign, according to a new report published by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. Last month, reporting on newly disclosed financial documents showed that Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, and members of his family were linked to 13 offshore companies with hidden assets of more than $30 million. Image Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, in Glasgow on Monday.
