Inside Somalia’s war against al-Shabaab disinformation

Websites and social media accounts linked to Somali al-Shabab militants continue to operate and spread the group’s message, despite ongoing efforts by the Somali government to shut them down.

At least two such websites that were shut down recently were quickly back up and running after re-registering and securing new domain names. Also operating were al-Shabaab-affiliated social media accounts, primarily Telegram and Facebook, which kept reappearing once recognized accounts were shut down.

Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab’s two main radio stations continue to broadcast in Somalia.

The Somali government has prioritized limiting Al-Shabaab’s online media presence over the past year and a half in an effort to reduce the group’s reach and influence.

Government officials confirmed to VOA for the first time that Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) has a dedicated team responsible for monitoring and reminding technology companies to remove extremist content.

“In the beginning, it was a difficult task that required knowledge, skills and a lot of work,” said Abdirahman Yusuf al-Adala, deputy information minister. “We trained people with the necessary skills, set up dedicated offices, provided equipment and parliament passed legislation. More than a year later, we are in a good position and we believe we have achieved many of our goals.”

Adala said he considered removing known accounts with thousands of followers a significant achievement.

Voice of America has learned from security sources that on December 26, 2023, the Somali government obtained a court order to shut down and seize domain names of websites and social media accounts suspected of being owned, used, or associated with Al-Shabaab.

In late January, the government reported that it had shut down 20 WhatsApp groups and 16 websites allegedly linked to U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

The Somali government said the groups and websites violated “all international counter-terrorism legislation” and posed an “imminent threat to national and international security.”

The move was not without protests. The shut down website Somalimemo said it was an independent news website serving the people of Somalia and had no affiliation with any organization, group, government or any other political faction.

The Somalia Mo group, which often publishes al-Shabaab statements and speeches, has criticized the Somali government’s attempts to target “Islamic media.”

Al-Furqaan, an al-Shabaab-affiliated station that operates in areas controlled by al-Shabaab, said it had not received notification from NISA before its website was shut down. The statement said the move contradicted the government’s official position of respecting media freedom. Al-Furqaan continues to broadcast.

The shutdown has not stopped al-Shabaab from spreading its message. After the shutdown in January, the group’s media staff quickly adapted, creating new social media accounts and adjusting domain names to get back online.

Al-Shabaab Adapts

Mohamed Gulaid is an Internet trust and security researcher and a member of the Integrity Institute who previously worked at Facebook parent company Meta. He said al-Shabaab and similar extremist groups use a variety of tactics to avoid government crackdowns and stay online.

“These strategies include long-form multimedia content (video, audio) in the Somali language,” he said. “Content moderation tools often struggle with long-form content and languages ​​such as Somali due to limited training data.”

Al-Shabaab also makes heavy use of platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, which are difficult to audit due to encryption and rely on reports from trusted partners and more manual investigations, Guled said.

“Al-Shabaab’s last tactic is to open many anonymous accounts in which they post links to videos posted on other websites that do not have content moderation or on their own websites,” he said.

Adam Hadley is the executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, a London-based nonprofit dedicated to disrupting terrorist groups’ use of the internet.

He said Al-Shabaab is one of the most sophisticated players in terms of how it uses the Internet to share material.

“In any given week, about 20 to 25 percent of the content we find on the Internet is probably created by al-Shabaab,” he said. “It is essentially the largest producer of terrorist material on the Internet.”

false information

The government said that in addition to publishing al-Shabaab ideology, the websites misrepresented the views of the Somali government, spread misinformation and disinformation, claimed that the country was under attack by “crusaders” and defamed the government as “apostates” despite the fact that Somalia The constitution is based on Sharia law.

“Al-Shabaab has consistently spread misinformation, often exaggerating the impact of its operations and exaggerating its influence or control,” Guled said.

“When it comes to disinformation, Al-Shabaab often manipulates broader themes such as nationalism and the lack of service delivery by the Somali government to advance their agenda. They portray themselves as a more effective nationalist force defending Somalia’s sovereignty. ”

Defectors say Al-Shabaab spent large sums of money translating the messages into English, Arabic, Swahili and Amharic.

Hadley said another al-Shabaab tactic is to share so-called “journalistic material” related to the group but mask it in the form of generic press events and news articles on various websites.

“Much of this content is very nuanced and nuanced, and it would take considerable time to establish that such material is in fact misinformation or fake news,” he said.

“In one particular case, we found an entire news website focused on questionable material indicating support for al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda. … We never found any overtly graphic or violent material on the site. It almost Pretending to be a journalistic service.”

He said it could take months to convince platform companies to remove the material. He warned that the effort would also require careful analysis and investigation to avoid the risk that legitimate political speech could be compromised.

A Meta spokesperson issued a brief statement in an interview with VOA, saying, “We do not allow terrorist groups on our platform, so we banned al-Shabaab accounts.”

Meta also said that in accordance with its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, content that glorifies, supports or represents such people and groups will be removed whenever the company becomes aware of it.