State paid trolls to threaten protesters – Amnesty report

The Kenyan authorities paid a network of trolls to threaten and intimidate young protesters during recent anti-government demonstrations, Amnesty International has said. According to BBC News, a new report by the human rights organisation said government agencies also employed surveillance and disinformation to target organisers of the mass protests, which swept Kenya across 2024 and 2025. The demonstrations were driven largely by ‘Gen Z’ activists who used social media platforms to mobilise. In response to Amnesty's report, Kenya's Interior Minister said the government ‘does not sanction harassment or violence against any citizen’. But Amnesty said it had uncovered a campaign to ‘silence and suppress’ the protesters. Young women and LGBT+ activists were disproportionately targeted, with misogynistic and homophobic comment, as well as AI-generated pornographic images, the report said. It has long been believed that the government employs a network of individuals, known as ‘keyboard warriors’, to push its online messages. As well as digital abuse, the authorities have also been accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown on the protests. The authorities were also accused of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and using lethal force against the protesters. The government accepted there had been some case of excessive force by police, but also defended the security forces in other instances. The demonstrations railed against issues such as proposed tax rises, increasing femicide and corruption. Amnesty chief Agnès Callamard said the organisation's report ‘clearly demonstrates widespread and co-ordinated tactics on digital platforms to silence and suppress protests by young activists’.

Full BBC News report