EISA About EISA is a not-for-profit organization, currently with field offices in eight countries in Africa: CAR, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Somalia, and Gabon. Its main objective is to promote fair elections, democratic governance, human rights, and citizen participation. The organization is moving towards doing more extensive work on information disorder during elections and has only recently started categorizing its work as countering mis- and disinformation. Established 1996 Reach Africa Languages Various national and local languages Partners Traditional media organizations, organizations working with vulnerable groups Methods and activities EISA conducts “training-the-trainer” sessions at field-office level to support organizations delivering voter education, especially those working with vulnerable groups such as women, in Somalia, Madagascar, and Mozambique. EISA does not work directly with the public; rather, it targets organizations that are pivotal in promoting fair electoral processes (such as media professionals, civil society organizations, and religious organizations). Target audiences are sometimes also determined by funding organizations. EISA’s programs are intended to go beyond simply pointing to information—they aim to empower the public as well as vulnerable groups. Other activities Research Challenges • Finding funding is an ongoing challenge. • There is limited capacity in terms of infrastructure, human resources, and technology. • Expanding training to more languages is something EISA wishes to do, but they have not yet been able to achieve this due to limited resources. Perspectives on information disorder “The extent of information disorder in a particular region is impacted by barriers to credible information, such as urban and rural differences, maturity of democracy, access to the internet, and language barriers.” Table 6: Overview of the operations of EISA CAPACITY BUILDING Rather than directly targeting specific forms of information disorder, some initiatives try to enhance the capacity of media institutions to do effective fact checking. This approach assumes that one of the reasons for the spread of false information is that journalists do not have the appropriate skills or economic incentive to identify and debunk mis- and disinformation. See Table 5 and Table 6 for some examples of capacity-building strategies used by initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. GAMIFICATION Some actors have sought innovative ways to create content that can combat mis- and disinformation while having the same capacity to go viral as false information does. They use game-like products to engage the public, either in the process of identifying false information or in learning about how mis- and disinformation works. For an example of the use of gamification, see the overview of Choose Your Own Fake News in Table 7. PLATFORM-SPECIFIC CONTENT CREATION This is a fairly unique response that consists of creating messages in a format meant to match the way information is shared on a specific platform such as WhatsApp or Twitter. As with the gamification method, it aims to deliver content which is as I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH captivating as that created by people producing false information. Following the compressed format of social media, actors tend to condense factchecked information into digestible, eye-catching formats such as videos, infographics, and GIFs. They may target a specific platform or multiple platforms. For example, “What’s Crap on WhatsApp?” (see Table 8) designs its content for WhatsApp, while the Viral Facts Africa initiative, managed by Fathm, tries to make content that is shareable across various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. SOCIAL GROUP ADVOCACY This method tends to be used by actors responding to social stigma, such as the ostracizing of women in Ghana who are suspected to be witches and children in Zimbabwe living with albinism, as well as the targeting of African women in politics through gendered mis- or disinformation. Although the term commonly used to refer to mis- and disinformation in these cases is either “cultural stereotypes” or “myths,” the responses are methodologically similar to demystifying fake news—that is, publishing factual information and promoting understanding and critical thinking. The main difference is that fake news spreads more rapidly and is responded to as it arises, whereas myths have existed and become entrenched over decades. See Table 9 for an overview of the operations of the Ghana Association of Persons Living with Albinism (GAPA). Sub -Saharan Africa – 1 52