3.3 POLITICAL CONTEXTS Regions in the Global South are frequently marked by political upheaval, protest action, and conflict, the outcomes of which are increasingly shaped by media and communications. When journalists in contexts of political turmoil blur the line between activism and evidence-based reporting, as has been the case in the Arab world (Bebawi 2022), this can contribute to information confusion. In Latin America, the region’s history of dictatorial rule and protest action has often been accompanied by disinformation and censorship (Bachmann, Grassau, and Labarca 2022) and, as this report shows, electoral politics in the region continue to be characterized by information disorder. This report also shows that in several Asian countries, election processes are disrupted by state-backed or politically aligned online actors, such as “IT cells” (India), “troll factories” (the Philippines), “buzzers” (Indonesia), “cyber troops” (Malaysia), and “cyber sena/the cyber army” (Nepal). In several countries in the region, such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, political candidates are often targeted on the basis of their ethnicity and religion, as part of growing ethno-nationalist narratives. In situations of ethnic and racial polarization and socioeconomic inequality, disinformation campaigns can easily exploit existing tensions. This was evident in the actions of the British public relations firm Bell Pottinger, which used a racially polarizing online campaign to deflect criticism from corrupt politicians in South Africa (Segal 2018). Citizens often look to governments to help stop information disorder, as research across sub-Saharan Africa has shown (Tully et al. 2021). But increasingly, governments use the discourse of “fake news” to suppress free speech instead. I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH Internet shutdowns or intentional crashes are employed widely in African and Asian countries, and the Covid-19 pandemic has provided a new smokescreen for governments to criminalize disinformation or clamp down on dissent (RSF 2021). As this report suggests, governments across the region are themselves also sources of information disorder. In Latin America, the Covid-19 pandemic has been used in the service of populist politics. The Latin American section in this study highlights the way in which President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil spread falsehoods about the pandemic and engaged in populist rhetoric in an effort to pander to his base. In countries with high levels of freedom of speech, such efforts by governments may be resisted, but in contexts where freedom of expression is suppressed, such resistance is more difficult. This is the case across much of sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of Asia, where governments frequently use internet shutdowns to clamp down on dissent. As this report notes, even where such efforts claim to be in response to information disorder, these strategies tend to be repressive rather than constructive. This report also shows how disinformation impacts on popular movements. As the section on the MENA region in this study shows, during recent uprisings in Lebanon, for instance, disinformation that was spread through WhatsApp affected the course of protests, encouraged violence, and spread panic, while protests in Iraq were marked by inflammatory sectarian rhetoric on social media. There are also examples in the Latin American section of how information disorder impacted on protests in Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. 3.4 GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXTS Changing geopolitical relations impacting on the Global South are also reflected in aspects of information disorder. Recent geopolitical shifts, such as the increased presence of China in Africa, are at the root of xenophobic disinformation, such as rumors of China selling “plastic rice” on the continent (Subedar 2017). At the same time, China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” social media strategy was applied by Chinese diplomats on social media in Africa to counter criticism in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic (Shumba 2021). As this report shows, regional tensions are often also exploited by disinformation campaigns. This is especially evident in Asia, where inauthentic influence operations in Pakistan have sought to amplify anti-India sentiments and vice versa, online disinformation Introduction – 1 5