One Face, Many Names: An Investigation into Fake NGOs and Media Outlets Linked to Harouna Douambaon and off Facebook
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- On May 6, 2021, Facebook announced the takedown of 32 Pages, 46 Profiles, and six Instagram accounts operated by individuals in the Central African Republic (CAR) whose activities targeted audiences in CAR. Facebook shared this network with the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) on April 26, 2021. This network was suspended not due to the content of its posts, but rather for coordinated inauthentic behavior. SIO found significant indications both on and off platform that many of the assets removed in this takedown were aliases for the same entity. The suspended network exhibited strong ties to Harouna Douamba, a pseudonym for an allegedly Burkinabe individual who has gained notoriety in CAR for the information campaigns he wages on social media. Douamba claims to be the president of three non-governmental organizations (NGOs): Aimons Notre Afrique (ANA), Coalition Afrique Engagée (CAE), and Fédération Nationale des Ivoiriens d’Origine Étrangères (FENIOE). Facebook Pages for these organizations were included in the suspended network, in addition to Pages for several other NGOs and media companies with ties to Douamba. We also found some evidence that one of the suspended Profiles may be the individual behind the Harouna Douamba pseudonym. Facebook attributes the network to ANA. Suspended Pages consistently disparaged France’s involvement with CAR, but praised President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and Russia. They also published slanted stories on other west and central African countries. We also investigated Douamba’s connections to a disinformation campaign that claimed four officials associated with the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR (the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, known as MINUSCA) trafficked arms to rebels operating in a neighborhood in Bangui, the CAR capitol. One of the suspended Pages was deeply involved in this effort and posted what might qualify as incitements to violence.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | January 5, 2022; May 6, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Hundley, Lindsay | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | DiResta, Renée | |
| Author | Goldstein, Josh A. | |
| Author | Grossman, Shelby | |
| Author | Reed, Cooper | |
| Author | Stephan, Adriana | |
| Author | Thompson, Julia | |
| Editor | Beck, Eden |
Subjects
| Subject | CAR, Facebook, takedown |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Report |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Hundley, L., DiResta, R., Goldstein, J., Grossman, S., Reed, C., Stephan, A., and Thompson, J. (2021). One Face, Many Names: An Investigation into Fake NGOs and Media Outlets Linked to Harouna Douambaon and off Facebook. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/fh631qn1220
Collection
Stanford Internet Observatory, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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- internetobservatory@stanford.edu
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