Social Media and Mis/Disinformation in Electoral Contexts in the DRC

Information Ecosystem Assessments

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Pierre Ndamwenge Bahati, Data Analyst and Infomedic Manager at Internews, Patient Ligodi and Pierre N’sana, researcher at the Laboratoire de Recherche sur les Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication (LARSICOM, Information and Communication Research center, Kinshasa), supported by Camille Maubert, researcher consultant based at the University of Edinburgh, conducted an assessment of supply and demand size of the social media ecosystem during the electoral campaign in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in November and December 2023. A focus was made on harmful content disseminated in grassroot WhatsApp groups of journalists and community leaders as 54% of Congolese people surveyed by Target, a renowned market research company, declared using internet primarily to connect to WhatsApp, making the platform a central tool to share information.

Main findings include:

  • 88.5% of identified harmful messages were dis/misinformation (sample of 520 identified in 155 WhatsApp groups of journalists and community leaders in Kinshasa, North Kivu and Haut Katanga during a 15-day period in the December 2023 electoral campaign).
  • Most producers of disinformation and hate speech are related to political interests.
  • A large proportion of the messages disseminated by users on WhatsApp groups are shared from other WhatsApp groups (65.5%) as well as social media including Facebook (8.5%), X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and YouTube.
  • Identity politics strongly shapes what are the disinformation/ hate speech content shared by users in local WhatsApp groups.
  • 65% of people who share harmful information (disinformation, hate speech) declared that they wanted to inform or attract attention of other members of the WhatsApp group, 21% to know what think other members of the WhatsApp group, 11% to fact-check information and 2% to show threats and share ideas to members of my community.
  • Members of local WhatsApp groups “are less inclined to verify information when it is shared by people or sources they trust.”
  • Members of local WhatsApp groups trust more videos “than text or image-based information, which they find are easier to manipulate.”

This research was made possible through the support of USAID Complex Crisis Fund. Reports are available in English and French.