An African defense against dishonesty

There have been more than 50 documented campaigns of disinformation in Africa in recent years, directly affecting nearly every country on the continent. Most have come from external sources like Russia and China seeking influence and control of strategic natural resources – although Africa’s authoritarian regimes have been prolific falsifiers, too. “The objective is less to convince as to confuse citizens,” the Africa Center for Strategic Studies noted last year. Another goal: undermine democracy. 

One country gaining notice for how it is strengthening its digital defenses is Ghana. It is one of a handful of African countries with a national cybersecurity strategy able to track and respond to digital threats, including disinformation. The West African country jumped 40 places in the Global Cybersecurity Index in just three years, ahead of Ireland and New Zealand. 

The strength of Ghana’s approach is a commitment to civic unity and freedom of expression – democratic principles that face rigorous challenges around the world as countries come to grips with the free flow of information via social media. In Ghana, cybersecurity policy is under civilian leadership and oversight. Businesses and the banking sector participate in monitoring and responding to threats. Judges and prosecutors have been specially trained to assess digital evidence.

Those measures are particularly noteworthy in Africa where only two of 54 countries have laws pertaining specifically to disinformation. Still, the laws have also raised concerns among media and human rights experts for the restrictions and penalties they impose. In 2021, a total of 34 African countries shut down the internet nationwide 182 times. Ghana, meanwhile, ranks third among African countries in internet freedom, its government constrained by law from censoring content and media content. 

“Ghana has placed a citizen-centric, multistakeholder approach at the core of its efforts to address the country’s cybersecurity challenges,” wrote Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh, chairman of the Accra-based Africa Cybersecurity and Digital Rights Organization, in an essay for the Africa Center. “This has enabled Ghana to build cyber capacity in a transparent manner that has helped reinforce trust between government and citizens.” 

A citizen-centered approach to countering disinformation – instead of, for instance, mandating or urging content moderation on social media platforms – has proved effective elsewhere. In 2007, for example, the tiny Baltic state of Estonia came under a withering cyberattack on government and public websites, email servers, and the banking sector. Linked to Russia, the incident bore the hallmarks of a strategy that Moscow has since deployed both internally and externally to further its interests.

Since then, Estonia has become a model for civic media literacy and “digital competency” in an age of mass disinformation. Public schools teach students how to question critically what they see on their cellphones and computer screens. Those lessons are woven into every subject, from math to art.

“The purpose of education is to support students and help them become a person who adequately perceives the environment around them and critically understands and evaluates information,” Britt Järvet, a strategic planning adviser in Estonia’s education ministry, told the BBC last year.

The disinformation campaigns that have shaken democracies, including the United States, in recent years have shown that lies require broad and willing participation.

Ghana now has a different message: that the slings and arrows of false content cannot harm societies united in digital discernment.