An Israeli political marketing firm helped launder the image of President Muhammadu Buhari before the Feb 23 general election, a report by an American think tank said. Digital Forensic Research Lab said Tel-Aviv based political consulting and lobbying firm, Archimedes Group, deliberately smeared the image of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar on Facebook. The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “the Facebook revelation detailing the devious manipulations and engineering of disinformation in the 2019 general election by President Buhari’s handlers and All Progressives Congress (APC) further exposes them as schemers and real enemies of our democracy and national cohesion.”
The social media giant banned Archimedes and its subsidiaries from its platform last Thursday after it discovered its illicit operations. “It has repeatedly violated our misrepresentation and other policies, including by engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour,” said Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher. 65 Facebook accounts, 161 Pages, 23 Groups, 12 events and four Instagram accounts linked to the Israeli firm have been taken down. The banned accounts and pages, Gleicher said, reached about 2.8 million Nigerian users and were discovered through internal investigations into suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
One of the pages specifically set up for Nigeria by Archimedes is Naija Scandals that was still active. Another page, now deleted, “Make Nigeria Worse Again,” was a trolling campaign aimed at Atiku, whose campaign slogan was “Make Nigeria Work Again.” The firm also operated a pro-Atiku Facebook page, Digital Forensic Lab said. “It is unclear why the network carried both a pro and counter operation related to Abubakar, but the supportive page was likely designed to identify his supporters in order to target them with anti-Atiku content later, and divert them to the “Make Nigeria Worse Again” page.”
The PDP said these revelations exposes the APC as a fraudulent and violence-prone party, whose divisive activities are now directly threatening the security stability of our nation. “Indeed, the Buhari Presidency and the APC should hide their faces in shame as Nigerians have seen that their professed sanctimony and ‘holier-than-thou’ claims are mere masquerading.”
Given the overt political posture of the fake Facebook pages, and the diversity and scope of Archimedes’ general operations, “the fact the pages were operated by a for-profit company is a troubling sign that highly partisan disinformation is turning into a capital enterprise,” the Digital Forensics’ report said.
The PDP regretted that “the APC, which engaged in manipulation to foist itself, will do anything, no matter how vile, to sustain itself in office, not minding the social, economic and collateral damages such could cause our dear nation.
“It is however, to say the least, despicable that in their desperation to hold on to power at all costs, President Buhari’s handlers and the APC engaged in this sneaky disinformation, internet lies and smear campaigns against PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. It is also unpardonable that instead of owning up, the Federal Government and the APC, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, are seeking to cover their tracks and divert public attention from their devious acts by making unsubstantiated security allegations against our party and Atiku Abubakar.
“The Facebook revelation exposes how President Buhari, in his claimed integrity, allowed the enlisting of criminals, hackers and internet fraudsters in the desperate attempt to manipulate the views of Nigerians against Atiku Abubakar; a scheme which failed as Nigerians had already made up their minds to do away with the incompetent, deceptive, vindictive and corrupt APC administration.”
The PDP and its candidate, who are challenging the reelection of president Buhari at the presidential election tribunal accused the APC of trying to manipulate public opinion by playing the victim, saying the ruling party “has now commenced a renewed plot to engage in fabricated security accusations against the PDP and our Presidential candidate in another desperate stunt to play the victim and divert attention from its endless election manipulations, all in the ill-fated attempt to demonize the PDP, hoodwink Nigerians and confer legitimacy on the outcome of the rigged election.”
The PDP challenged the APC and the federal government to respond to the Facebook revelations, saying no matter how hard the Federal Government and the Presidency attempt to distort facts, the truth will ultimately prevail.
