ERITREA Introduction Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 and has since been ruled by the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) headed by President Isaias Afwerki as a militarized authoritarian state with no elections. The country has no independent media and most domestic journalists are regularly detained without an explanation. By the end of 2018 sixteen journalists had been under arrest, many of whom had been detained since 2001 when the government officially shut all independent media. Eritrea also requires citizens to perform national service for most of their working lives. Over the past few years, citizens have tried to leave the country in huge numbers: in a single week in September 2018 nearly 4,000 Eritreans claimed asylum in Ethiopia (the country has a population of about 5 million) (Carnegie Ethics Online Monthly Column, 2016; Freedom House, 2019). Eritrea is one of the least connected countries in the world, with an extremely low internet penetration rate. In 2012 only about 6% of the population had mobile phones and 1% had access to the internet. Eritreans fulfilling national service are not allowed to have a mobile phone (Katlic, 2014; Winter, 2014). By 2020 the internet penetration rate has risen to 8.3% and about 0.6% of the population use Facebook (Africa Internet User Stats | Eritrea, 2020). While mobile phone subscriptions and access to the internet through dial-up or one of the few internet cafés are very expensive, another reason for limited online communication is fear of repercussions when searching for or sharing information online. Internet cafés are monitored by security agents, so any questionable behaviour would likely lead to being detained (Freedom House, 2019; Katlic, 2014). An Overview of Cyber Troop Activity Eritrea Organizational Form Even though the domestic internet and social media penetration rates are so low, the Eritrean government nonetheless appears to have made sure to stay up to date with modern online manipulation and information-warfare techniques. Reports surfacing in the summer of 2019 find that the PFDJ has sent operatives to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to receive extensive training on tactics of internet/social media warfare. The Eritrean government established a task force under the leadership of the Minister of Information, Yemane Gebremeskel, which included Eritreans living abroad to work as ambassadors for Eritrea. It appears that this task force worked as part of a troll farm for the UAE, targeting a number of countries in the Middle East. Moreover, Eritrea seem to target the few Eritrean independent news outlets as well as activists that are currently based abroad (Awate, 2019, 2020). Eritrea remains the most censored country in the world and domestically controls information flows through direct, legislative means as well as by having a legal monopoly on broadcast media (CPJ, n.d.). Table 1: Organizational Form and Prevalence of Social Media Manipulation in Eritrea Initial Government Politicians Private Contractors Civil Society Citizens & Report Agencies & Parties Organizations Influencers x Source: Authors’ evaluations based on data collected. Blank spaces indicate no evidence was found. 132