Somalia's govt employed fake journalists to troll journalists and smear political opponents

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Somalia's govt employed fake journalists to troll journalists and smear political opponents

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Under the presidency of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, Somali government has employed fake journalists and social media campaigners to carry out a smear campaign against its political opponents and troll on journalists as per do

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An Identification Card of Mr. Abdirizak Terra who claims to be an investigative journalist despite not engaging in any established media.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Under the presidency of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, Somali government has employed fake journalists and social media campaigners to carry out a smear campaign against its political opponents and troll on journalists as per documents seen by Horn Observer.

In a report in February this year, Amnesty International found that between late 2017 and early 2019, Somali government officials from the office of Somali President had been allegedly bribing some of the owners and directors of the main media outlets, as well as some Somali social media influencers who live in the country and abroad, for positive media coverage.

In the report dubbed "We Live in Perpetual Fear: Violations and Abuses of Freedom of Expression in Somalia", journalists told Amnesty International that the bribing of their bosses and media outlets has had a chilling effect on them and that they were not able to freely report on sensitive stories and topics that are deemed unfavourable by the authorities.

For the first time this week, Horn Observer has found leaked confidential documents exposing some of the fake journalists involving in the government-run propaganda campaign targeting dissidents and political opponents and trolling on critical journalists.

Abdirizak Yusuf Ali (popularly known as Abdirizak Terra) —who despite not engaging in any form of established media, accredits himself to claim as an investigative journalist in the Horn of Africa (HOA) and that his watchdog reporting covers power abuse, government crimes, political corruption and undercover issues — has now been laid bare to be a Somali government employee. He has been hired as an adviser to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. A second background check by Horn Observer has also revealed that Mr. Terra is working at the Ministry of Defense as an adviser.

In another document dated on September 17, 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has authorised issuance of a Service Passport, a type of passport issued only for government employees, for Mr. Abdirizak Terra.

"He is not alone. There are hundreds -if not thousands- of social media goons hired to attack, insult and smear political opponents, critical journalists, human rights defenders and even international researchers," said Abdiaziz Mohamed, a former adviser to Somalia's Internal Security Ministry "Their job is to start flame wars and make critics suffer by any means including shaming and harassing them."

-SOCIAL MEDIA AS PROPAGANDA TOOL-

In the recent history, social media has been a key propaganda platform for all parties involving Somalis's prolonged conflict to communicate their messages to the public including the al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabaab. Somalia government and its partners, in their public relations war use media to communicate what they consider to be military and political successes. The current administration of president Farmajo has particularly used social media to show its opponents in a bad light and manipulate the public’s access to accurate information.

According to three government sources privy to the matter, Office of Somali president (The Villa Somalia) hired local and diaspora members to become social media influencers (trolls) in the favour of the administration. These trolls have been operating under the direct supervision of Villa Somalia's Director of Communications, Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed, himself a former media-trainer-turned-public relations, to create discord and making upset on critics by posting inflammatory messages, discrediting media content or even bringing off-topic messages in the online community.

"Sometimes we were tasked to change the narratives of the trending discussions or news incidents such as security related matter in the favour of the Villa Somalia administration by cooking fresh but false incidents that we might think the news media might be interested," one former Villa Somalia employee currently in Turkey told Horn Observer.

In an interview with Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, an opposition politician in Mogadishu described the trolls he faces when he campaigns on social media. He said that most of the trolls were being paid by the Federal Government of Somalia to distort political conversations on social media and smear his ideas.

"Social media is overtaking traditional media, it’s new and smart of them [to be using it]. But paying money to people to attack others including public figures on social media is a new phenomenon to Somalia," Mr. Warsame told Amnesty International.

- PAID TO SMEAR-

In early last year, several local media houses published a document containing a list of about 500 names of individuals who were on government payroll- mainly under the Office of Somali president. It includes notorious individuals including fake journalists in Somalia, Europe, Kenya, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States of America.

"These individuals used to get payment from the government as they smeared the opposition members and critics. Those targeted include journalists, elders, federal member states, clerics, scholars and women," said Ahmed Yusuf, a Mogadishu-based journalist who monitors social media behaviour.

The smear campaigners were sometimes effective in diverting attention of the Somalis and the international community away from the matter in question and onto a specific individual or group. One good example is Mr. Terra's so-called documentary in February last year that purportedly claimed to have investigated corruption scandals of former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's regime and another one in January 2019 that said to have unveiled graft allegations against president Muse Bihi's Somaliland administration.

Neither Mr. Terra's documentaries brought evidences for the serious graft allegations he made and nor has he provided the right to reply to the officials he has targeted.

It is not only politicians those targeted by Abdirizak Terra's pro-government propaganda. He has also targeted journalists who write critically on the government, according to Ali Adan Mumin who works for Goobjoog Media.

"I am one of those he has targeted and he was rewarded with that," journalist Mumin said referring Mr. Terra's paid smear campaign.

Horn Observer has repeatedly sought response from Abdirizak Terra who currently lives in Turkey who declined to be interviewed in this article.

(HORN OBSERVER)