Despite heavy coverage, the United States Presidential election isn’t the only one impacted by social media. One more global example would be the 2019 presidential elections that occurred in Nigeria. The social media/communications app WhatsApp has been the host of much misinformation and “fake news” throughout the course of the election cycle.
A rather humorous example of this is when President Muhammadu Buhari went to the United Nations to prove that he hadn’t “died and been replaced by a Sudanese clone named Jubril.” This sort of fake news is the type spread by WhatsApp, among other social media outlets around Nigeria.
The Washington Post did research on this phenomenon and came away with a few key points. These include: WhatsApp groups can start a ripple effect through their high spreading speed, political parties are aware and encouraging of this fact, trust in WhatsApp-spread information is based on who they hear it from, and finally that the rumors are interpreted different ways depending on their various interactions with the state.
To read the full article and learn more, I’d recommend following this link.
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 