Fact Checks

Facebook controversy

Reports over Facebook’s role in the dissemination of hateful content, misinformation and political unrest have emerged this week. A whistleblower called Frances Haugen, former employee of Facebook, accused the company  of intentionally amplifying hateful and disinformation content in countries like Ethiopia.

She alleged that Facebook has a role in fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia by amplifying hateful and divisive content.

Facebook has been one of the largest platforms where  disinformation and other ill contents have been disseminated  during the ongoing armed conflict in Ethiopia. HaqCheck has debunked multiple false claims with intentions of hate and disinformation for the last 11 months.

“One in five people have mental health problem in Ethiopia”

As World Mental Health Day was celebrated on October 10, mental well-being  has been one of the major topics of discussion in the past week. While different reports were circulating to create awareness about mental health, one that caught the attention of many was the claim that “one in five people have a mental health problem in Ethiopia.”

Mental health problem is often  associated with the condition most commonly known as Schizophrenia. However according to WHO, mental health problem  includes depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychoses, dementia, and developmental disorders including autism. In this regard the issue that raised controversy – “one in five people suffers from mental health problems’ – refers to collective disorders in the category of mental illness, not only one specific disorder as explained by professionals.

Images of Fresh Confrontation Casualties

This week, social media information disorder was higher than the previous one , among which  reports of fresh offensives and counter-offensives had been the most highlighted topic . The belligerents have accused each other of launching offensives and of resorting to a violent means to the resolution of the armed conflict. Both issued statements trying to influence  the local and international communities.

As such reports reached a crescendo, social media disinformation campaigns and controversies began to emanate from the social media. Images and posts on social media emerged claiming that the ‘enemy side’ was being destroyed and taken advantage of.

HaqCheck fact-checked an image posted earlier last week on Facebook with a claim that the federal-government-led forces already started an offensive using drones, air, and infantry. The image attached to the post to prove the claim shows a burning and destroyed vehicle. The Facebook post has earned more than 55 shares on the platform.

The image actually shows a vehicle set on fire by protesters in the Oromia Regional State in 2016. The incident happened during the Irreecha celebration  in which   many Oromo youths died in a stampede during  a crackdown to suppress an ongoing  protest. Consequently, a string of violent responses blazed all over Oromia triggered by the  saddening casualties.   In one of such incidents  protesters destroyed public and private properties belonging to the Nigerian investor Aliko Dangote. This included his cement factory in the town of Ada Berga was attacked and trucks were destroyed. The burning vehicle in the image was one of the vehicles of the tycoon’s cement factory that were smashed by the protesters.

‘Teddy Afro entertaining recruits

As the armed conflict in the northern part of the country has persisted, the Ethiopian National Defense Force has been engaged in a concerted effort of recruiting new members and conducting training of cadets in various training camps.  

People of fame, riches, and higher government authorities have attended graduation ceremonies in different military training camps. 

Relevant to the matter, a video was published on a YouTube channel,  website, and Facebook page with more than 484,277 followers claiming that Tewodros Kasahun, aka Teddy Afro, a popular singer, surprisingly arrived in Tolay Military Training Center and entertained the recruits.

The video clip has got more than 20,900 and 1,108 views respectively on the website and YouTube, and more than 60 shares and 1,700 reactions on Facebook.

The video  is found to be manipulated and fake. HaqCheck looked into the thumbnail of the video and confirmed that it is photoshopped. The  thumbnail of the clip was manipulatively arranged by cutting an image of the singer’s head into another man among a crowd of recruits. Moreover, the video  is made up of a slideshow of various pictures of the vocalist and the army troops.

Hateful content

In our overview of  disinformation trends through the week, we came across a  social media content considered to potentially fuel the information disorder in Ethiopia.

We could learn that this YouTube video  has the power to incite violence and promote hate speech. The video featuring an interview with a “Fano” militia trainer  circulating on social media had raised controversies. The interviewee in the video was heard saying that they will kill hundreds of others for the killing of one of their own people.       

Recommendations

HaqCheck recommends that media outlets should refrain from echoing hateful and misinformative content that potentially incites violence. 

We would like to appeal to  large international social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram to commit the due effort to prevent disinformation campaigns. We also urge that they should consider collaborating with local fact-checking initiatives in order to effectively verify claims before reaching many and incite violences.

HaqCheck calls upon government authorities to permit full access to information to media organizations and journalists so that the public can obtain sufficient information regarding matters that affect their lives.

Social media users are also advised to be conscious of the origin and intention of the unverified information they read and share with others. They should identify trustable pages and sources to understand the intention and credibility of the posts and claims.

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HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).

This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.

A Facebook page with more than 140,000 followers shared a post saying that “… the Ethiopian forces started the new incursion using drones, air, and infantry…”. An image attached to the post shows a burning and destroyed vehicle to support the claim. Until this article was published the post had been shared more than 55 times. However, the image doesn’t show a vehicle destroyed due to the recent offensive and it is presented in a False context.

Since November 4, 2020, there has been an ongoing armed conflict between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the TPLF forces. The conflict started after the TPLF forces attacked the army base of the Northern Command. The federal government launched a military operation which has been dragged to this time. 

Despite the fact that the federal-led forces took control of major areas of the regional state and killed and arrested senior TPLF military and civil leaders, security and humanitarian crisis happened to loom over the region.  TPLF resorted to a hit and run military strategy which worsened the situation.

At the end of June 2021, the federal government declared a sudden unilateral ceasefire and pulled out its troops from Tigray after a request from the provisional government of the region. As the federal forces left the region, the TPLF regional forces rebranded themselves as Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and advanced to the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara. 

Reports of fresh military offensives and counter-offensives have come out recently. Getachew Reda, TPLF spokesperson has confirmed that an air and ground offensive by the Ethiopian military troops and Amhara and Afar allies was launched.      

Haqcheck has used a reverse image search to validate whether the image shows material losses in the current war. It is found out that a regional and international news media called Africanews.com shared a news report entitled “Dangote’s factory attacked by protesters in Ethiopia’s restive region”.

The Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote is popular for his investment in the cement industry. Dangote Cement is Africa’s largest cement company with plants in Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania & South Africa. Dangote is the largest cement plant in Ethiopia capable of producing high-quality 32.5 and 42.5-grade cement to meet market needs and at competitive costs.

On October 4, 2016, there was a life loss and property damage, due to a violent outbreak in some parts of the Oromia region       

Following the stampede that occurred during the Irreecha celebration, trucks and machinery that belonged to the Dangote’s group were attacked by the Oromo protesters. The attack that took place in the town of Ada Berga targeted the cement factory owned by Africa’s richest man Nigerian Aliko Dangote.  

Even though there are several wrecking claims related to the conflict in Tigray, the image attached doesn’t actually show a burning truck or any material loss during the recent offensive in the north making the post be rated as False. 

A video published on a YouTube channel,  website, and Facebook page with more than 484,277 followers claims the video to show “Soldiers and Teddy Afro in an Amazing Video” and that the vocalist had surprised the army with his sudden presence. 

By the time this article is published the video is viewed more than 20,900 times on the website and the Facebook post has been shared more than 60 times with 1700 reactions. The video was first published before the Facebook and Website posts on the YouTube channel on September 16 having 1,108 viewers.

 

However, the video in the Facebook post doesn’t show Teddy Afro entertaining cadets at  Tolay Military Training Center, and the post is rendered False.

Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in active war in Northern Ethiopia Since November 2020.  Different local media outlets have been reporting about massive recruitment and training of youth by the Ethiopian National Defence Force in different training centers. Artists and Government officials are often observed paying visits to new cadets at different Army training centers and at war fronts with the supposition of motivating and encouraging the soldiers.

Teddy Afro (Aka Tewodros Kassahun) is a prominent musician with a huge fan base in Ethiopia and Eritrea. “Ethiopia”, his 5th album, got topped on the week of May 20, 2017’s Billboard World Albums Chart. The claim was circulating in light of this formidable situation for its assertion.

However, HaqCheck looked into the thumbnail of the video and confirmed that it is photoshopped, a creative trick of merging the vocalist’s image in the middle of a mass army gathering. Moreover, the video content is made with a slideshow of various pictures of Teddy Afro and the army.

Furthermore, in an effort to ratify the claim, we spoke to Getachew Manguday, the manager of the vocalist. “The claim is totally false. Teddy Afro has never been to Tolay Military Training Center in any scheduled program with the army, he explained. 

Therefore, the video circulating around different social media is confirmed to be False.

Social media platforms this week were inundated with false claims related to controversies over Ethiopian Airlines, the new government formation, the ongoing armed conflict in northern parts of the country, and more. The volume of social media information disorder and controversy was noticeably higher this week than of the preceding one. There have been serious and controversial claims.

Ethiopian Airlines ‘transporting weapons’

One of the controversies circulating on social media was CNN accusing Ethiopian Airlines of shuttling weapons to and from Eritrea amid the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

The reporters attempted to back up their report using cargo documents and manifest, plus eyewitness accounts and alleged photographic evidence.

However, in the AlJazeera report, Ethiopia Airlines has denied transporting weapons to the conflict in Tigray. 

 

Using the CNN report a Facebook page with more than 10,000 followers posted a screenshot quoting that “Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam acknowledged that Ethiopian airlines has been and will continue fulfilling the demands of the government.” 

Even though this claim was shared on social media, Ethiopian Airlines posted on its Facebook page quoting that “the Ethiopian Airlines official Facebook account was temporarily compromised and we found out that a fake statement was posted as if it was from the Ethiopian Group CEO.”

It said that the CEO of the Airline– Dr. Tewolde Gebremariam –has not conveyed any message and has never done so on any of the Ethiopian social media accounts. 

    

The speech by the Prime Minister 

On Monday, October 4, 2021, Ethiopia held the formation of the new government. The Executive branch of the government was established.

Following the formation of the government, controversies appeared regarding missing government figures that were not included in the new cabinet.

During the government formation process, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) made a controversial statement that “developed countries don’t have an education ministerial post”. The claim was trending on social media outlets.

However, developed countries do have education ministerial departments. For instance, the US has a cabinet-level ministerial post called ‘US Department of Education’, and the United Kingdom has ‘Department for Education’ which is responsible for children’s services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills.

Tedros Adhanom’s re-appointment as WHO chief

A Facebook page with more than 180,000 followers has posted a claim quoting “Tedros Adhanom (Ph.D.) was re-elected as the Chief of World Health Organization (WHO).” 

Tedros Adhanom served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia and as Minister of Health from 2012–2016. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. After his work in these organizations, in 2017, he was elected as the chief head of WHO, but there is no official statement showing that Tedros Adhanom is re-appointed as chief of the WHO.

The US military equipment provision to Ethiopia

Two claims which appeared during the week had also been fact-checked by HaqCheck. A Facebook post emerged to claim that the US government recently gave $2.9 million of military equipment to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces. Two images were posted along in a bid to prove the claim. The post, further states that the military equipment was offered to Ethiopia to counter Al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups in Somalia.

However, HaqCheck has confirmed that the images don’t show that the US recently provided military equipment to the Ethiopian army. The images show American military assistance to Ethiopia a year ago. The vehicles and an ambulance in the image were donated by the US Department of Defense to Ethiopia on September 29, 2020. The $2.9 million worth of military assistance, which included ambulances, Land Cruisers, trucks, other materials, and military operations training, was aimed at helping Ethiopia counter threats from Al Shaabab and other terrorist groups. Therefore, the Facebook post was rated False.

The Ethiopian military being ‘armed with new drones’

A Facebook post on 7 October asserted that the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) is armed with new drones called “VTOL [vertical take-off and landing] drones”

HaqCheck looked into the three pictures attached to the post in support of the report. A reverse image search of the images found that the images were first published in a news article by Xinhua on November 14, 2018, and show that Ethiopian police officers attending drone piloting training in Beijing.

Recommendations

As always, HaqCheck recommends to the public in general and social media users, that they should be conscious of the origin and intention of the unverified information they read and share with others. This includes disinformation trends and consumers should identify the right pages and sources to understand the intention and credibility of the message they are reading or sharing.

HaqCheck urges multinational social media networking sites, such as Facebook, to work with local fact-checking organizations to mitigate growing disinformation elements.

Information disorder increases during a shortage of reliable, trustworthy information. We recommend the government and all public entities to allow private media organizations and the public to have full access to information kept behind the curtain.

HaqCheck also urges public officials and figures to be responsible for claims and statements they make and their impact at the bottom level.

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HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).

This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.

A Facebook post on 7 October asserted that the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) is armed with new drones called “VTOL drones” announcing it as “Good News”. The Facebook page with more than 69,000 followers also adds in its post that the drones are capable of firing mortars off of the radar and that they are outcomes of an astonishing technology enabling them to sense the enemy’s direction and attack.

However, the post is rendered False due to a factual error in the content and the inaccuracy of the images used to support the claim. 

As the conflict in the Tigray region persisted, the Ethiopian Defence Force had acknowledged the use of drones in the conflict, implying that the Air Force is equipped with military drones. There were also allegations that the ENDF is armed with Iranian drones.

What are VTOL drones referred to by the post?

VTOL stands for vertical take-off and landing. It describes aircraft and drones (unmanned aerial vehicles / UAVs) able to take off, hover, and land vertically, like a helicopter. The most common type of VTOL UAVs are multicopter drones.

A multicopter is a mechanically simple aerial vehicle whose motion is controlled by speeding or slowing multiple downward thrusting motor/propeller units.

VTOLs are used in mining, construction, oil and gas industries, surveying, mapping and security, and defense. In such ways, it helps by taking imagery of large areas, capturing geographical data, and monitoring through aerial surveillance. In general (drones) UAVs can be used for different purposes depending on their types.

Hence, in light of the provided explanation, it can be learned that the VTOL drone is not a military drone that can fire mortars off the radar as stated in the Facebook post, making the post’s assertion False.

On the other hand, HaqCheck looked into the three pictures attached to the post in support of the report. A reverse image search of the images shows that the images were first published in a news article by Xinhua on November 14, 2018. The news reported that Ethiopian forces attended drone piloting training in Beijing.

Moreover, it can be observed that the uniform the soldiers wore in the picture is the former official uniform of ENDF, replaced by the new uniform in 2019. 

Therefore, due to the reasons stated above, the Facebook post’s report that the ENDF is armed with new VTOL drones that are capable of firing mortars off the radar is rated False.

The US government recently gave $2.9 million of military equipment to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, a Facebook post claimed on October 6, 2021. The post used two images that show vehicles to support the claim. It further states that the military equipment was offered to Ethiopia in a bid to counter Al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups in Somalia. The post had received  10 shares and 39 reactions as this article went to publication.

However, HaqCheck has confirmed that the images don’t show that the US recently provided military equipment to the Ethiopian army. Therefore, the Facebook post is rated False due to its usage of inaccurate pictures.

The United States government has historically been a major donor to Ethiopia. The country has been a major strategic partner of the US during the imperial era, Cold War, and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Ethiopia was a close ally of the US fighting the Al Shaabab in Somalia and countering terrorist organizations and activities.

However, the images posted along with the claim don’t prove that the US recently provided military equipment to Ethiopia. The images show American military assistance to Ethiopia a year ago. The vehicles and an ambulance in the image were donated by the US Department of Defense to Ethiopia on September 29, 2020. The military assistance, which was worth $2.9 million, was aimed at helping Ethiopia counter threats from Al Shaabab and other terrorist groups. The support included ambulances, Land Cruisers, trucks, other materials, and military operations training.

The images were first published by Al Ain, a United Arab Emirates-based media organization, on September 29, 2020. Click here to access the original images and article.

Although Ethiopia had been receiving considerable military assistance from the US government, these pictures don’t show recent military equipment provided to Ethiopia. Therefore, HaqCheck confirmed the post is an untrue claim and rated it False.

In the following summary, we cover major disinformation trends observed in the fourth week of September along with important recommendations.

The closure of Jimma airport

One of the major viral posts that were circulating on Facebook was a false claim reporting Jimma Abajifar Airport had a bomb attack and stopped giving service. It also adds that several were injured and one person has died.

However, Jimma Zone Communication Bureau later announced on its Facebook page that the information was false and that flights were not compromised. There were also pictures of the airport workers, attached with the statement, confirming the airport was operating as usual.

Controversies over the resignation of the Minister

The other controversial issue that was circulating on social media was about the reason behind the resignation of Filsen Abdulahi, the former Minister of Women, Children and Youth. In the letter of resignation submitted to the prime minister and posted on her official Facebook account, she stated her reason saying “Any situation that compromises my ethics is contrary to my convictions and values, and betraying these beliefs is a breach of trust to myself and our citizens.” She explained the reason for her immediate resignation is concerned with her personal nature and conditions that weigh heavily on her conscience. 

However, there had been different speculations, on social media, about her decision. On one hand, some argue that she is leaving because of language problems and that the Ministry would be closed after the new formation of government. On the other hand, some say that she is leaving because she is affiliated with the Ogaden national liberation front, which dropped out from the Election conducted in the Somali Regional State.

  

The highest and lowest points in Africa

One of the misinformative claims that grabbed our attention this week was a post shared on Facebook and Telegram, informing its followers that the highest and lowest points in Africa are found in Ethiopia. 

The post asserts that the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia are the peak or the highest point in Africa and the Danakil Depression is the lowest point in Africa.

Nevertheless, Haqcheck looked into the post and confirmed that the highest peak in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro found in Tanzania while Lake Assal found in Djibouti is the lowest place in Africa. Both places are not found in Ethiopia making Haqcheck rate the post as False.

Recommendation

HaqCheck urges the public and social media users to look for information from credible and original sources, official statements, updates, and clarifications from authorities regarding current issues, controversial matters, and social media claims. And should refrain from disseminating conspiracies and unconfirmed rumors.  

The general public should be provided with sufficient information and updates regarding ongoing issues in the country and media organizations and concerned authorities have the professional obligation to do so. 

Government officials should have to be more transparent and state their ideas clearly for the general public. 

Social media activists, pages, and bloggers should be careful about what they share. Especially when quoting another source, they have to make sure they use the right information and context.

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HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).

This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.

False information can come in the form of news, stories, or hoaxes. They are mostly created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers. Most of the time these stories are designed to either influence people’s views, push a political agenda, or cause confusion. They can often be a profitable business for online publishers. False information can deceive people by looking like a trusted website or using similar names and web addresses of reputable news outlets or organizations. As usual, during the month of September, different claims including pictures, videos, and scams have been spotted.

Using false images to support claims

As previously observed, social media posts have been using false images to support claims. Many false claims have been made utilizing images that don’t fit the description, even though false image claims decreased in the later days of the month.

Fake or manipulated images through social media platforms have the capacity to deceive, cause emotional distress, and influence public actions and opinions. Nowadays the misinformation trend in Ethiopia, especially using false images, is increasing rapidly.

Before, social media users used to employ false images that are so easy to recognize and find in previous publications. These days they have started to use manipulated, edited, or complex images that are tough to easily recognize and find. This trend has been observed recently.

Most of the false images HaqCheck has spotted are related to the current situation in the northern part of Ethiopia.

In the first week of September captioning “Ethiopia and Israeli forces have agreed to work together” even though the caption is mentioning Israel, one of the images shows Ethiopian and French air forces.

Such claims manipulate contexts or twist events to distort facts. During the time when the claim that the Ethiopian and Israeli air forces agreed to work together, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) went to Turkey and paid a two-day work visit. The Prime Minister and the Turkish President Erdogan inked a military cooperation agreement. The claim follows the event and such posts have a greater potential to misinform and make people believe, rather than claims which emerge out of nowhere with no background event or context.

In the second week of September, an image showing heavy artillery shelling in Mekelle claiming that gunshots and heavy artillery were heard 47 km away from the capital city of Tigray.

The claim followed a fresh wave of fighting between belligerents in adjacent areas bordering Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions.

Even though the image is in Mekelle, that image was taken and reported on a Voice of America (VOA) news network reporting “during an airstrike attack one person has died and houses are burnt down”.

As the armed conflict has continued, reports of a worsening humanitarian crisis have been coming out of Tigray. These reports were followed by claims that used false pictures. Social media posts claimed that a public protest was held in Mekelle against the Tigray People’s Liberation Movement (TPLF), saying that they could no longer tolerate the rule of the TPLF. The claim used three false videos to support the claim.

The other image which has been circulating on social media in connection to the current situation in the northern part of Ethiopia includes a ‘woman crying’. The caption used for this image was starvation in the Amhara region of Wollo. But the image shows a woman crying because of a disastrous fire incident that happened around a marketplace in the Wolaita Zone of the South Nation, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. A child affected by malnutrition in Somalia was also used to show the starvation in the Amhara region of Wollo.

In the third week of September, a false image was posted on Facebook to show Ethiopian air forces in operation.

Scams 

Nowadays, people are increasingly reporting social media messages that offer grant money and other giveaways. As people seek more ways to earn money, scammers use these weaknesses on social media to get money out of people. In the second week of September, many scams appeared in the name of globally known companies.

False video clip

A fake news trend in Ethiopia is widely expanding on social media platforms, especially Facebook. A video claiming to show a military operation showing afar heroes and EPRDF soldiers killing TPLF forces was posted on the third week of September. But later a reverse image search revealed that the video was taken from a war between Saudi-led soldiers and Yemen forces in the Jizan axis at the border of Saudi Arabia.

False advertisements

Along with fake news and scams, false advertisements are also used on social media platforms even if they are advertised on Facebook. One of the fake advertisements we had noticed in the third week of September is a false claim impersonating a reputed organization such as Ethio-telecom on a post offering a gift prize including a free 100 GB and i-phones.

HaqCheck’s general observation is that even though there are a lot of social media posts using false images, recently video clips are also coming out increasingly to support their claims.

The social media claims that surfaced in the social media landscape in the past were highly related to the armed conflict in the northern part of the country and other related issues. Recently the armed conflict seems to have somewhat reduced its horizons on social media. Consequently, social media claims have since then been reduced along with the armed conflict.

Recommendations

Deeply manipulated and fabricated images and video clips are appearing at a rate that is difficult to verify – even for fact checkers. We recommend social media users to approach outlandish claims backed by images and video clips with caution.

We urge the public in general and social media users in particular that they should be conscious of the social media landscape. This includes disinformation trends and consumers should identify the right pages and sources to understand the intention and credibility of the message they are reading or sharing.

Regarding scams, as we always recommend, when social media users receive random messages and with automatic links, they should refrain from giving their private information because it can be used for potential scams. They should reach out to the mentioned entity or fact-checking organization to verify the message or information they receive.

HaqCheck believes that multinational social media networking sites, such as Facebook, should work with local fact-checking organizations to mitigate disinformation dissemination.

Information controversies and disinformation tendencies are high during a shortage of information. It is a common trend that the government enjoys a monopoly of information. It is a fertile ground for disinformation dissemination. Therefore, we recommend that the government should allow private media organizations and the public to have full access to information held at governmental offices and by authorities.

You can find the detailed weekly summaries here:

Fact Checked Hoaxes and Other Disinformation Trends

September: week two disinformation trend summary

September: week three disinformation trend summary

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HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).

This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.

A social media post on Facebook and Telegram channel by the going by the so-called name Business Info Ethiopia ቢዝነስ ኢንፎ ኢትዮጵያ claimed that the highest and lowest points in Africa are found in Ethiopia. 

The post states that the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia are the peak or the highest point in Africa. It added that the Danakil Depression is the lowest point in Africa.

Ethiopia has a variety of geographical landscapes from mountains to valleys. Mount Ras Dashen, found in the range of Simien Mountains, in the northern part of the country, is the highest point in Ethiopia at 4,620 meters high above sea level.

On the other hand, the lowest point in Ethiopia is the Danakil Depression, found in the Afar triangle. The depression is part of the East African Rift which stretches from Jordan to Mozambique. The Danakil Depression is found 125 meters below sea level.

However the highest and the lowest points in Africa are not found in Ethiopia.

The highest peak in Africa is Mount Kilimanjarofound in Tanzania. The mountain is 5,895 meters high above sea level.

Lake Assal found in Djibouti is the lowest place in Africa which is 155 meters below sea level. The location is part of the Afar triangle that overlaps Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. The lowest points of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti are found in the triangular depression.

Therefore, HaqCheck refuted the claim that states both the highest and lowest points in Africa are found in Ethiopia and confirmed that the claim is inaccurate. Hence, HaqCheck rated the post as FALSE.

The armed conflict that erupted on the evening of November 3, 2020, between forces loyal to the TPLF and the Ethiopian federal government-led has unleashed significant propaganda and disinformation campaigns. Each side has used social media platforms, satellite radios and televisions, phone communications, rallies, protests, and so on to communicate information to their supporters and the wider world.

But it is now becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate propaganda from facts or reliable information.  Governments have privileged access to information and accounts and they have the power to deny open access to the public or media. Even if it’s hard to verify information broadcast by warring sides or belligerents, propaganda can be identified by observing the presentation, intention, or manipulation of certain information.

Degrade enemy’s capabilities 

Nicholas Spykman, an American political scientist, enumerated five dimensions of warfare: military, political, economic, ideological, and psychological. The political, ideological, and psychological warfares are called, in today’s terms, propaganda.

Propaganda is now a tool to intensify your war efforts. It is also one tool to deceive and mislead the enemy. Propaganda can mean spreading information, through lies or manipulated facts, to help one’s cause or to damage an opponent’s during a war.

Propaganda can be directed inward or to external audiences. Propaganda to internal audiences is meant to produce a manufactured consent of the general public to the war or a certain decision.

The invention of mass communication tools such as television, the radio, and cell phones revolutionized the dissemination of propaganda and disinformation.

Propaganda has been employed throughout history whenever a war breaks. However, there have been few that happened to have ever effectively mastered propaganda in history.

The Nazis are best known for their effective employment of propaganda to manipulate public opinion and conquer the state apparatus and power.

Likewise, the belligerents in the Tigray armed conflict have widely used propaganda to gain an advantage over the other side. This has been done to mislead the enemy, distort facts, mobilize popular support, and gain international help. They have used mainstream and social media, public gatherings, and so forth to broadcast their propaganda efforts. The propaganda machines have hugely contributed to the waves of disinformation during the last 11 months of armed conflict.

Media warfare

The armed conflict in Tigray and the belligerents’ propaganda machines have fueled threads of disinformation.

The propaganda efforts by both sides started even before the war broke out at midnight on November 03, 2020.

Both sides began this element of media warfare when the newly appointed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) merged the then Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF) into the Prosperity Party (PP). The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) openly opposed the merger of EPRDF into one party and refused to join the camp.

Thereafter, the relations between Addis Ababa and the Tigrayan state capital, Mekelle, has worsened. Initially, both sides condemned each other for conflicts and instabilities that have surfaced across the country. TPLF accused Abiy Ahmed and his administration of failing to protect peace and security and exposing the country to foreign forces. On the other hand, the federal government, led by Prime Minister Abiy, accused TPLF of instigating conflicts and instability across the country using the financial and intelligence capabilities it built during its three-decades-long dominance of national politics.

Both sides have rushed to manipulate certain events to their advantage. When an incident happens, they instantly issue statements that accuse each other.

Rallies

The federal administration in Addis Ababa and TPLF organized rallies in which they denounced the other side.

Rallies had been the main tool of propaganda during Nazi Germany. The Nazis effectively used rallies to persuade the public that Germany had been ‘backstabbed’ during WWI and they are the only messiah that will deliver the country from the horrors of a post-war socioeconomic and political quandary.

The Nazis accused the civil government of betraying the nation, the Allied Powers, the Jews, the Communists, and other minorities. They built the brand of the Nazi Party and the messianic image of the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, through relentless rallies.

The rallies organized by both sides, especially by TPLF in Tigray, were intense. The rallies were organized under various contexts and pretexts. But the theme and messages of the rallies have almost been the same: condemning and accusing the other side.

Rallies in Addis Ababa and other areas under the realm of the Prosperity Party denounce and accuse the TPLF of alleged acts of instigating ethnic conflict and instability across the country so as to delegitimize and overthrow the federal government and restore its 27 years of dominance. The rallies held by the TPLF in Tigray accused the federal administration, particularly the Prime Minister, of failing to keep peace and stability Messages they spread included exposing the national security of the country to foreign forces, conspiring with external forces to destroy TPLF, [in extreme senses, the Tigray people], plotting and instigating mass violence against ethnic Tigreans, and even betraying the country (treason).

Persistent rallies have been organized at the federal level too. The intention of the rallies was to mobilize support for the government, opposing the enemy side, and protesting alleged interventions from abroad. The rallies were also used to demonstrate that they have popular legitimacy.

They both cited the constitution to legitimize one’s side and call upon each other to respect and protect the constitution. TPLF and the federal government condemned each other for plotting to undermine the ‘constitutional federal system’.

Election Postponement

The lower house, the House of Peoples Representatives, decided to postpone the Ethiopian Sixth General Elections citing the COVID-19 global pandemic. During the session in the Prime Minister Office, TPLF delegates and MPs fiercely opposed the motion, arguing the disease still was not a pandemic and accused the federal government of illegally extending their span in power.

TPLF then declared that the postponement was unconstitutional and illegitimate.

This was a new chapter of large-scale media warfare between the federal government and TPLF.

The Tigray state council decided to conduct a regional general election. The federal government condemned the regional election in which TPLF won in a landslide and threatened to take measures in return. The House of Federation nullified the Tigray regional election. The federal government froze a budget subsidy that was due to be provided to Tigray during the 2020/21 fiscal year.

Later on, TPLF declared Abiy’s administration illegal beyond October 04, 2020, and then cut its relationship with the federal government. It recalled officials who are members of the party at federal offices.

TPLF officials compared the budget subsidy suspension to a declaration of war.

The propaganda warfare became even more intense. Controversies arose over a refusal of the newly appointed army chief. The army chief, Major General Belay Seyoum, was appointed and delegated to command the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defence Forces whose headquarters was in Mekelle, Tigray. TPLF refused to endorse the new army chief and automatically returned to Addis Ababa. The news was compared to deportation in Addis Ababa, although TPLF claimed that he wasn’t deported but only told him his appointment was not legitimate as the constitutional span of the federal administration is over.

Days before the war broke out, incidents, in which many civilians were killed, occurred in Benishangul Gumuz, South Nation, Nationalities & Peoples Region, and in Guliso, Oromia regional state.

The Guliso attack was a major setback to the federal government that even regional state-affiliated media outlets like Amhara TV harshly criticized the federal government and the Prime Minister for failing to protect the lives of civilians.

The federal government accused the TPLF of engineering the attack to delegitimize the government and illegally seize the federal power. State-affiliated media outlets echoed the accusations.

A few days before the war broke out, TPLF chairman and then Tigray regional president, Debretsion Gebremickael appeared on television and stated that the federal government has already waged a war over TPLF and called upon his government to get ready.

The Northern Command Incident

When war broke out, propaganda from both sides surfaced on mainstream and social media channels.

TPLF then stated that the strike was an “anticipatory self-defense attack” claiming the federal government was planning to attack them using the Northern Command. Furthermore, they claimed that the Northern Command defected to their side.

The federal government accused TPLF of attacking the Northern Command to illegally seize munitions and began a military operation against them.

Since then, the Ethiopian social and mainstream media landscape has been contaminated by propaganda and disinformation semination. Information and incidents were weaponized to take advantage of and deprive the enemy side.

The war generated wide-scale social media warfare and online activism between the belligerents and their supporters.

The capture of Army Generals and Civil Officials

As the skirmishes continued, claims of the surrender of army generals widely emerged on social media. The claims stated that Lt. General Bacha Debele was captured by TPLF forces. Such claims expanded and later claims of the capture of Lt. General Abebaw Tadesse came out. The claims were blistering.

Social media platforms had been infested with claims alleging senior TPLF civil and military leaders were killed or arrested. In fact, senior TPLF leaders were killed and arrested. However, the claims go extreme to say many such as Debretsion Gebremickael, Getachew Reda, Tsadkan Gebretensae, and so on were killed or captured.

The social media disinformation claims mostly use false or manipulated images and video clips to prove the information. HaqCheck has fact-checked and debunked many claims of such kind.

Massacres and Mass Atrocities

Reports and claims of mass atrocities and massacres have come out and no one could exactly know the facts.

News of Mai Kadra Massacre, Mahbere Dego Massacre, Axum Massacre, Debre Abay Massacre, Agamsa Incident, Humera Massacre, Galicoma Massacre, Chena Massacre, and so on have surfaced. The reports of massacres have been accompanied by hashtag campaigns/activism on social media platforms, mainly Twitter.

They were used as a weapon to demonize the other side in the public mind, to mobilize infinite support from one’s social base, tear the enemy’s reputation and image at the international level, and gain sympathy and support from the international community.

Prisoners of war

Both sides claim they have gained thousands of prisoners of war from each other. The claim is behind an argument that ‘we are destroying the enemy side and are going to win the war’. They broadcast interviews of so-called prisoners of war with an intention to demoralize the other side and its social base.

They both also condemned each other for using underage, fresh recruits as cannon fodder and for using human shields. They denied that the prisoners of war interviewed by the other side belonged to them.

Federal Troops Withdrawal from Mekelle

The Ethiopian Defense Forces announced that it had withdrawn from Mekelle and major areas of Tigray following a sudden unilateral ceasefire by the federal government at the end of June 2021. They both tried to manipulate the event to their advantage. They struggled to give their own version of the narrative to the event.

The federal government and TPLF forces rebranded themselves as Tigray Defense Forces, have come up with their narratives. The federal government said that its forces withdrew from Tigray for humanitarian purposes and partially due to growing diplomatic pressures and sanctions.

The forces in Tigray, on the other hand, stated that the federal army was routed in Tigray with a fresh offensive called ‘Operation Alula’ indicating why the federal government declared a unilateral truce and pulled out its troops.