The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– ‘Mischief makers’ –
Abubakar’s campaign team itself has had to publicly distance itself from accounts in his name on Facebook that have been liked by tens of thousands of people.
One in the name of Peter Obi, his pick for vice president, had more “likes” than his official page.
The accounts include posts encouraging supporters to share pro-Abubakar slogans online for money.
Another on Twitter and Facebook recently posted that Abubakar was grateful to have received support from a LGBT rights group.
But there is no evidence of any such organisation having done so. Nevertheless, the claim made it into a number of Nigerian newspapers quoting an official who appears not to exist.
Many apparent support groups based on ethnicity, gender or religion are often fabricated in Nigeria to attack rival positions.
In this case, LGBT support would likely be frowned upon in Nigeria, where same-sex relationships are banned and religious conservatives are hostile to the rights of sexual minorities.
“Whoever posted it did it for a desired backlash from a typically conservative audience,” said Segun Showunmi, an aide to Abubakar.
“What we have observed is that mischief makers, sometimes the political opposition, try to make a mess, because the regulations on social media are not very strong yet.”
– Baseless claims –
Even the algorithms that govern social media sites are often tricked by fake news pages, which are designed to look like established news sites, with only minor differences.
Last year, when Buhari was in London undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness, sites imitating Fox News and London’s Metro newspaper announced his death.
Yet unverified pages and imitation sites often crop up in Facebook’s “Suggested Pages” column, alongside established accounts.
One designed to look like the broadcaster African Independent Television (AIT), for example, has 46,000 followers.
But most of its posts are conspiratorial and baseless claims. Few posts link to articles and when they do, it is to blog sites unassociated with the real AIT.
