At the end of July, a company called Reset released an analysis that revealed “a network of 53 Facebook pages spreading and amplifying Kremlin propaganda targeting French-speaking audiences in Africa, with a total subscriber base of 5.1 million people. This network propagates Kremlin narratives against Ukraine, NATO and the West, with a key narrative targeting local audiences that Russia is a true friend and ally of Africa.”
According to the authors, 17 of the 57 pages analyzed were created very recently and quickly gained more than 670,000 subscribers, with many of them gaining tens of thousands of subscribers within days of creation. All of them use a common content strategy, attracting users, publishing memes, and then start spreading pro-Russian disinformation on a large scale.
The report said they “failed to identify the common owner of the entire network” that disproportionately amplifies one Ebene Media TV, created in 2021 and based in Cameroon. The administrators managing the pages are located in Europe, Africa and Ukraine, but at the same time, the authors of the report conclude that this is nothing more than “part of the Kremlin’s hybrid war”, which “largely and constantly manipulates vulnerabilities in social networks in countries of francophone Africa, eluding detection.”
In fact, it doesn’t really matter who owns this network. In early May, I already wrote how to read such reports correctly. What they call “Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda efforts” translates into how Russian media is doing a great job in this region. And that’s all we need to know about it.
Our preliminary findings suggest that the network is just a small fraction of a much larger ecosystem of active Facebook assets (pages, groups and individual profiles) that have been recently utilised to promote
pro-Kremlin content to French-speaking audiences in Africa specifically and Francophone communities in
general.
• The existence of a coordinated network of at least 57 Facebook pages that disseminate and
amplify Kremlin propaganda targeting French-speaking audiences in Africa with a combined follower base of 5.1 million. The network parrots the Kremlin’s narratives against Ukraine, NATO and the West. A key narrative targeting local audiences is that Russia is Africa’s true
friend and ally, ready to help African countries stand up to French hegemony. The network often posts footage taken directly from Russian government and state media sources as well as
various Russian Telegram channels.
• Between the 1st of March and 25th of June 2023, the network received 9.2 million interactions (likes, shares, comments) and published 11.7K posts (mostly videos dubbed in French). It increased its cumulative follower base by 60%, adding 1.9 million new followers within this three-month period.
• The pages in the network share hallmark characteristics of coordinated inauthentic behaviour
(CIB) that are in direct violation of Meta’s policies: all pages use fictitious identity (pose as media outlets), have similar branding and posting patterns and accumulate engagement and follower base inauthentically. They all leverage a common “bait-and-switch” content strategy for attracting users with entertaining content first before starting to amplify pro-Russian disinformation at scale.
• New pages are continuously being added to the network. Only four pages have been deleted
since we started monitoring the network’s activities in April 2023.
