Political disinformation during Zimbabwe’s 2023 harmonised elections

Abstract

Political disinformation is heightened during election periods world over and Zimbabwe is no exception. Leveraging on technological advancements to create hyper reality social media content, the period leading to the 2023 elections experienced complex and sophisticated forms of content that made it difficult for the audiences to tell whether it was real or fake. Audiences re-shared and re-posted such content with an assumption that it was real — and one such is an MP4 campaign message purported to be emanating from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) political party. Such content has the potential to threaten a healthy democracy in any society. Against this background, this study sought to explore the nature of political disinformation used by political parties, candidates, interest groups, civil society and individuals for campaigning and de-campaigning purposes. Factored in is an analysis of how online audiences, particularly on the X platform, were deciphering meaning, and exploring the possible implications of such ‘problematic information’ in society. Rooted in the interpretivist paradigm, the study achieved its objectives by employing a non-participatory observation (netnography) approach to collect and archive data on the micro-blogging site, X. The data that were analysed using thematic and semiotic analysis revealed that the period under study experienced a high proliferation of political disinformation in its varied and diversified forms such as, among others, doctored images, edited audios and videos, and memes. Due to technological advancements, a contemporary form of political disinformation emerged such as deepfakes; content which blurred the lines between real and simulated media texts. The study submitted that deepfake content resulted in the polarised nature of online audiences. Furthermore, the study established that a polarised audience has the potential to impede democratic dialogue and threatens a healthy democracy.