Social media companies Facebook, TikTok and Twitter did not ensure their election integrity commitments in the August Kenyan elections, said a Mozilla Foundation fresh report. Labeling of contents would not be effective in curtailing misinformation as political advertisement had been acting like an amplifier to propaganda, the report added.

It ended by concluding that hours after the close of voting in Kenya, these social media websites were filled with mis- and disinformation about candidates who supposedly won the elections, and labeling by Twitter and Tiktok was spotty and unproductive in stopping the spread of those falsehoods. It argues that the spotty labelling of posts calling the elections before the declaration had influenced some parties more than others, hence affecting the neutrality of these platforms.

Facebook failed dramatically on this front by carrying "no visible labels" during the elections, which facilitated the spread of propaganda — as in claims that a prominent politician had been kidnapped and arrested, a story whose veracity was cleared by local media houses. Facebook recently tagged a label on the original post claiming kidnapping and arrest of the prominent politician.

"The days following Kenya's federal election were an online dystopia.". We needed platforms to fulfill the promise of being a trustworthy place for election information now more than ever. Instead, they became the very opposite: places of conspiracy, rumor, and false victory claims, said Odanga Madung, Mozilla Tech and Society Fellow who conducted the research and had earlier raised concerns over the platforms inability to moderate content ahead of Kenya's elections. Mozilla also found the same flaws during 2021 German elections.

"This is especially disappointing considering the promises of the platform ahead of the election. Within hours of voting closing, it was clear that Facebook, TikTok and Twitter lacked capabilities and cultural sensitivity to curate relevant information on regional elections."

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These platforms had previously made statements on the measures they were taking in the lead-up to Kenya's elections, including partnerships with fact-checking organizations.

"For markets like Kenya where trust levels for institutions are low and challenged, there was need to study how labeling as a solution - which had been tested in western contexts - could be applied to these markets, Madung said.

Kenya's general election this year was one the likes of no other; as the electoral body responsible for the independent electoral and boundaries commission in the country went public with all the results data in its pursuit of transparency.

Media houses, parties of major electoral contenders included, Dr. William Ruto (now the president) and Raila Odinga and individual citizens did parallel tallies that produced other different results further" triggered confusion and anxiety nationwide".

This wild anxiety found its home in online spaces, where a sea of mis- and disinformation was flourishing: premature and false declarations of winning candidates, unverified statements concerning voting practices, parodies and fakes of public figures' accounts…

Madung noted that when platforms intervene, it is at the time that it's already overdue, and last just after elections, yet knowing that where the results in countries like Kenya have gone to court in the last three elections, more time and effort are needed to fight mis- and disinformation.

Political advertising

The study further established that Facebook enabled politicians to run adverts just 48 hours before election day, therefore violating the law in Kenya, which states that campaigning must stop two days before voting. It was reported that people were still able to buy those ads and that Meta eased restrictions that were more strict in Kenya than elsewhere, such as in the U.S.

Madung also noted several election result premature declarations and announcements advertisements, something Meta said it didn't allow, raising the issue of safety.

"No warning labels existed on any of the advertisements — the platform took the advertiser's money then allowed them to spread unverified information to audiences," it said.

Seven ads may hardly be considered dangerous. What we - and other researchers - found, however, is that if the platform couldn't catch offending content in what was supposed to be its most controlled environment, then perhaps there are grounds for questioning whether there even is any safety net on the platform at all," the report says.

Meta, in fact, told TechCrunch that it "relies on advertisers to ensure they comply with the relevant electoral laws" but has set measures that ensure compliance and transparency including verifying persons posting ads.

We've been preparing intensely for the Kenyan election since last year and have invested in a series of measures we believed would keep people both safe and informed, including work on tools that make political advertisements more transparent so that folks can examine them and also hold accountable those responsible, added Meta spokesperson. ".

Mozilla urges the platforms to be transparent on the steps taken on their platforms to identify how effective it is in stopping dis- and misinformation, starting interventions early enough (pre-election) and sustaining the efforts after the results are declared.