Beyond Disinformation: Countering Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)

As democracies around the world and advocates of a rules-based international order confront the threats posed by information manipulation, an even more brazen dimension of the threat is the clear and present danger posed by Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI).

This strand of disinformation is attracting attention because of the geo-strategic calculations informing its deployment and the intentionality of the state actors involved. From malign influences, which undermine elections to narratives, which whip up anti-democratic sentiments, the reality of FIMI has left pro-democracy and human rights defenders with the herculean task of how best to counter it. Given the destructive and no-holds-barred tactics of FIMI campaigns, fact-checking and civic organizations working to promote information integrity have to be skillful and passionate, if they are not to be overwhelmed by the flood of false narratives produced and disseminated on a massive scale.   

FIMI is much more lethal than other strands of information manipulation because, beyond engaging in mere propaganda, it is a precursor to hybrid warfare. A cursory look at the experience in West Africa makes it clear that the external actors deploying FIMI see their rivalry in terms of the need to attack and undermine the enemy in readiness for possible armed conflict. Contextually, what this implies is that the intentions of state actors and their affiliates, who deploy FIMI are to deploy manipulated information in a way that shifts the orientation and thinking of the populace in the “enemy” territory.  Data collected by the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies indicates that at least 39 African countries have been targets of a specific disinformation campaign targeting the continent. The Center’s previously referenced policy brief released early in 2024 points out that nearly 60 percent of disinformation campaigns on the African continent are foreign-state-sponsored.

Despite analyses citing China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar as primary sponsors of disinformation, Russia continues to be fingered as the preeminent sponsor of disinformation campaigns on the African continent. Africa Center research data point to how Russia sponsored 80 documented FIMI campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries. “This represents nearly 40 percent of all disinformation campaigns in Africa. These 80 campaigns have reached many millions of users through tens of thousands of coordinated pages and posts.

Aggressively leveraging disinformation is a mainstay of Russia’s use of irregular channels to gain influence in Africa,” the Africa Center brief notes. Although it has been argued that disinformation targeting West Africa does not originate from Russia alone, with some actors in the West also carving a disinformation niche for themselves, Africans think tanks continue to reflect on how to find the balance. Seeing that great power rivalries and information wars are on the verge of turning the West African region to a space for proxy information wars, there have been suggestions for the region and the rest of Africa to evolve a non-aligned approach to handling FIMI.  

In West Africa, FIMI has manifested in the form of strategic and consistent information manipulation campaigns. Experts have drawn attention to these campaigns which seek to manipulate information and shape perceptions as some of the major factors in democratic reversals and backsliding in the region. While recognizing the scale of the challenge posed by FIMI is one thing, ensuring civil society, journalists, and researchers working on the ground have the capacity and technical skills required to combat it is a different ball game.

During a recent four-day workshop by the Africa Center in Lagos, Nigeria, participants discussed how FIMI undermines democratic societies and its role in propping up authoritarianism. Hands on practical learning sessions were carried out to counter FIMI, alongside interactive learning at the workshop shaped by surveys and quizzes. Fact-checkers, journalists and representatives of civil society organizations were jolted by the scale of the clear and present danger posed by FIMI narratives, aggressively being peddled by threat actors.

Importantly too, there was a panel discussion, which focused on the theme; Information Resilience and Chemical Weapons: Protecting the Norm Against Chemical Weapons and Countering Disinformation. This panel session featuring journalists, fact checkers and experts on issues of chemical and biological weapons offered a glimpse into FIMI narratives, which attack processes like vaccinations. Such narratives similarly weaponize conversations around pandemics to sow distrust among citizens about the work of frontline health institutions. Panelists noted that these narratives have dire consequences in terms of health outcomes, including posing challenges like vaccine hesitancy amid repeated disinformation campaigns. It was noted that a good number of these FIMI campaigns themed around chemical and biological weapons, go as far as falsely labeling vaccination efforts as attempts by Western nations to decimate Africa. The result is the mass hysteria and public rejection which undermine efforts by governments and multilateral institutions to implement pandemic response and readiness policies. Overall, the experience indicates that FIMI campaigns centred on biological and chemical weapons portray vaccination and immunization efforts against pandemics as attempts to decimate and ultimately depopulate Africa.  

With the knowledge of FIMI as a tactic to undermine facts and advance the influence of the responsible foreign power, several tools were shared on how to counter it. At the core of the group of tools are the Open Source Intelligence Toolkits (OSINT). This wide range of open source and built tools offer researchers and fact-checkers the arsenal required to address the threats FIMI poses.

However, challenges around cost and localized context were highlighted in ensuring access to the right toolsets enabling fact-checkers and information integrity experts effectively to do the work of countering FIMI and other forms of malign influence.

The biggest lesson learnt from the workshop, and an effective solution to existing challenges, is the importance of cooperation, synergy and collective action. During the workshop, participants with similar expertise were allocated to different groups, such that different skillsets could be pulled together and utilized for countering disinformation projects. By practically demonstrating the importance of collaboration, the message was not lost that working together as defender communities against FIMI and other forms of disinformation, remains the most effective way to beat the bad actors at their game.    

Critically, the role of civil society in terms of ensuring media and digital literacy at the grassroots level was highlighted. This point is crucial, given the dearth of knowledge and skills at the local levels, in terms of verifying information on social media and across the internet.

According to data quoted by the Africa Center, 300 million Africans have come onto the social media space in the past seven years. The data further stresses the point that there are now 400 million active social media users and 600 million internet users on the continent. The numbers indicate that this massive audience if not actively engaged and enlightened about the dangers posed by FIMI could become passive recipients of disinformation by threat actors.

At the end of the four-day workshop, there was a sense of enthusiasm and energy among participants that the collective efforts required to sanitize the information space in West Africa could be strengthened by the perspectives shared and major lessons learnt. Finally, with local coalitions like the Nigeria Fact Checkers Coalition already serving as a platform to galvanize collective action, there was a healthy dose of optimism that through the right synergies, the information space could be sanitized, and the threat actors defeated.

 

Armsfree Ajanaku is Fact-Checking & Countering Disinformation Consultant at the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD-West Africa).