From The Director’s Desk:

In our previous newsletter we noted the changes afoot in Washington, and how the ‘tech bro oligarchy’ have been moving closer to power in the White House. One of the first developments in this regard was the scaling back of moderation on Meta’s platforms in the US, which we also discussed in our first podcast.

This past month saw more executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump. One of these offered refugee status to white Afrikaners in a move that was widely criticized – including by the South African government – for being based on a disinformation campaign. You can read more about this move, and criticism of it, in our newsletter below.

President Trump also announced deep cuts to US foreign aid across the world, which will have a serious impact on media development and assistance across the Global South. We will delve more deeply into this topic in a podcast discussion later this month.

Closer to home, this month saw the launch of a new report on electoral disinformation in several African countries – an issue that is of great concern in the often fragile democracies on the continent. And in South Africa, we saw legal threats again used by politicians against journalists – behavior that can undermine the integrity of the information ecosystem in that country.

For more news about these issues, follow us on social media and keep in touch.

Thank you for reading!

Herman Wasserman, CIIA Director.

In The Spotlight:

Trump’s Fake Refugees

US President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at South Africa “isn’t about fairness – it’s a cynical ploy to stoke racial paranoia and shore up his right-wing base”

In an article for Africa is a Country, CIIA Director Herman Wasserman unpacked the executive order and the reactions that followed.

Legal threats against journalists undermine our access to information

 Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane’s legal threats aimed at journalists from Daily Maverick and News24 highlight a concerning trend where powerful individuals use the legal system to try to suppress ‘unfavourable’ media coverage. Simelane’s lawyer’s letter followed a series of investigative articles by the journalists detailing luxury purchases that “far eclipsed her income” at the time.

In an article for the CIIA, Daniel Roodt explores the impact of the legal threat on information integrity in South Africa and why it accounts to strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP).

Donald Trump’s fixation on South Africa | The Listening Post

 Trump’s executive order that cut aid from South Africa stems from his claims of human rights abuses against white farmers, but many believe it is driven by Trump’s political agenda and a desire to ‘punish’ South Africa.

Last month, CIIA Director Herman Wasserman spoke to Al Jazeera about Trump’s fixation on South Africa and where it originates from.

Trump, fopvlugtelinge en die Tech Bros in ’n era waar waarheid passé geword het

 🔎Herman Wasserman het met Willemien Brümmer van Netwerk24 gepraat oor die toenemende bedreigings vir inligtingsintegriteit, die oorsake daarvan, en wat ons daaromtrent kan doen.

What We’re Reading – The Impact Of Trump’s Aid Cuts On The Media:

1. Namibian media outlets have reacted with dismay after the US embassy asked them whether they were affiliated with Western publications whose subscriptions have been cancelled by the US State Department, writes Rachel Savage for The Guardian.
2. A crackdown on US Federal Funding for international media publications has left investigative journalists from around the world scrambling to survive the “sudden cash crunch”, write Ken Bensinger and Benjamin Mullin for The New York Times.
3. International NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has warned that Trump’s aid cuts to news outlets will “create a vacuum that plays into the hands of propagandists and authoritarian states”.

JOIN THE CIIA – POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP:

The CIIA is looking for a suitably qualified postdoctoral candidate for a postdoctoral fellowship. The candidate should have a demonstrable interest in one or more of the following research areas:

• Disinformation Studies;
• Artificial Intelligence and African Societies;
• Foreign Information Manipulation and Influence (FIMI);
• Social, Economic and Political Drivers of Disinformation in Africa;
• Online Hate and Extreme Speech;
• Counter-measures to disinformation in Africa, e.g. media literacy, fact-checking, and investigative journalism;
• Regulation and Moderation Policy Studies;

For more information on how to apply for this position, download the application document via this link.

SLAPP-ING THE MEDIA: THE IMPACT OF SLAPPs ON JOURNALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Strategic litigation against public participation, known as SLAPPs are becoming an increasingly common tactic by wealthy & powerful individuals to silence critical journalism. This weaponisation of the legal system to hinder investigative journalism poses a significant threat to information integrity in South Africa.

For Episode 2 of ‘Under the Influence | A CIIA Podcast’, CIIA Marketing Manager Daniel Roodt was joined by News24 legal journalist, Karyn Maughan, who has been on the receiving end of a SLAPP and media law expert & partner at law firm Webber Wentzel, Dario Milo to discuss SLAPPs in South Africa.

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*This originally appeared in the CIIA’s monthly newsletter which provides a monthly roundup of the CIIA’s work and all the major talking points from the world of information disorder and information integrity. You can read the original here.

From The Director’s Desk:

This is the first newsletter of our newly established Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CIIA). We are excited about our plans for the year ahead – but already January has been a busy month in the (dis)information space. Coinciding with Donald Trump’s inauguration as 47th president of the United Space, whose election last year ‘opened the disinformation floodgates’, the tech giant Meta announced that it would be rolling back its fact-checking system (for now) in the United States. Many observers saw this as part of the cosying up of an emerging Big Tech oligarchy around the new political power formation in the White House.

These moves also have implications for information integrity in the Global South, where authoritarian regimes might take encouragement from a global political climate of disdain for fact-checking, moderation and tech justice. Trump’s loose relationship with the truth could also be seen in his unfounded claims about land expropriation in South Africa, amplified by Elon Musk on his platform X and irresponsibly cheered on by local rightwing lobbyists Afriforum, leading president Cyril Ramaphosa to accuse them of misinformation.

Speaking of polarisation, disinformation and online hate, I have recently returned from a fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Studies at LMU University in Munich, where I was part of an international research team working on the topic of messaging apps, encryption and the enticement of extreme speech. It was an extremely enriching experience, and I will return to Munich in April when we aim to launch a policy report on moderation and regulation. The group was led by Sahana Udupa, with whom I have co-edited a book on disinformation and encryption on WhatsApp, which is due to appear later this year.

I hope you find our first newsletter interesting, and that you will subscribe to receive regular updates about our Centre.

Herman Wasserman, CIIA Director.

In The Spotlight:

 Meta’s Moderation Cop-Out Will Fuel Misinformation

 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to alter its content moderation strategies drew sharp criticism from the international fact-checking community. A standout concern was that the new approach, which aligns with right-wing political stances, could fuel the spread of on Meta’s platforms.

In an article for LitNet, CIIA director Herman Wasserman unpacks how Zuckerberg’s new position on fact-checking will fuel misinformation.

What We’re Reading:

1. The alignment of tech companies to undermine global efforts for information integrity poses a great threat to Africa’s fragile democracies, write Liz Orembo and Nerima Wako.
2. Misinformation and disinformation remain the top short-term risks for the second consecutive year in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Risks Report.
3. Meta’s updated approach to content moderation could exacerbate societal divides and silence marginalised voices in South Africa, writes Kavisha Pillay.

 Under the Influence – A CIIA Podcast:

In the first episode of the CIIA’s Podcast, Under the Influence, CIIA Director Herman Wasserman is joined by Cayley Clifford, Deputy Chief Editor of Africa Check, and Kavisha Pillay, Executive Director of Campaign on Digital Ethics (CODE), to discuss the implications of Meta’s updated fact-checking policy for users in the Global South.

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*This originally appeared in the CIIA’s monthly newsletter which provides a monthly roundup of the CIIA’s work and all the major talking points from the world of information disorder and information integrity. You can read the original here