Ivory Coast suffers fake coup reports

In May, social media was full of posts claiming a coup was under way in Ivory coast. Dramatic footage of soldiers on the street flooded platforms, while AI-generated and presenter-led reports were racking up millions of views on YouTube. But the claims shared around 19 May were false, reports BBC News. They are the most recent example of untrue rumours being spread about coups in West Africa, increasing tensions in a region that has seen several military takeovers in recent years. Ivory Coast, one of the few French-speaking countries still closely aligned with the West, is due to hold Presidential elections later this year. Experts believe it could be an increasing target for this type of disinformation with narratives attacking the electoral process. This is because Ivorian President Alassane Ouattarra, poised to seek a fourth term, is seen as pro-Western, and his critics accuse him of aligning with countries that are exploiting the continent. Ivory Coast's Communications Minister Amadou Coulibaly said they had traced the origin of the fake information to ‘neighbouring countries’, but did not specify further.

The rumours appear to have grown out of a rift with Burkina Faso and have been promoted by a growing wave of self-styled pan-Africanist influencers. They reject ties with the West, often express support for Russia and generate conversations across the continent – reaching countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The influencers also promote figures like Burkina Faso's military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in a coup in 2022. Alex Vines, the director of the Africa Programme at Chatham House think tank, said the influencers are attempting to sow doubt about existing political leadership by spreading or amplifying coup rumours, to erode public confidence in the current institutions. Relations between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast seriously soured more than a year ago, when Traoré accused his neighbour of tolerating militant groups on its territory and harbouring ‘destabilisers’ and dissidents who were openly insulting his junta. According to BBC News,  in  April it was widely amplified online. The BBC Global Disinformation Unit analysed mentions of the fake Ivorian coup reports on TikTok, Facebook, X and YouTube – and the earliest popular post they found was on 19 May by Harouna Sawadogo, a pro-government activist in Burkina Faso who makes content for his 200 000 TikTok followers almost exclusively aboutTraoré.

Full BBC News report