Bots pushed anti-China narrative ahead of Ghana mining ban

The Sun

3 days ago

ABUJA: Before Ghana banned foreigners from its gold trade earlier this year, an online bot campaign pushed anti-Chinese sentiment, blaming Chinese nationals for exploiting the country and stealing its resources.
The west African nation has long been home to an informal artisanal mining sector.
But recent years have seen foreign investors -- including many Chinese nationals -- bring in industrial equipment and operate without permits or regard for the environment, leading to accusations of land grabbing and the serious degradation of waterways.
In April, the government took steps to rein in the 'galamsey' -- as illegal mining is known -- by banning foreigners from trading in Ghana's local gold markets and granting exclusive authority to do so to a new state body, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
The move was seen as sending a major signal to foreign mining operators -- especially Chinese ones.
But ahead of the ban, fake accounts impersonating real Ghanaians on X had been pushing a coordinated effort to link China to galamsey explicitly for at least nine months, accounts seen by AFP and reviewed by disinformation experts show.
Such campaigns have become common around the world to try to influence real-life politics.
Who was behind the push remains unclear.
While Chinese nationals have been blamed for the mining crisis, the role of Ghanaians went mostly unacknowledged in the posts, even though many of the country's political elite have been accused of direct involvement or complicity.
'Corruption be big wahala (problem) for here -- look at galamsey, when Chinese come inside, everything change sharp,' said one typical post in Ghanaian Pidgin English, which researchers contacted by AFP identified as written by a bot.
'We for keep eye on them, no let them steal we gold like they done in other countries.'
Another accused Chinese companies of wanting to 'exploit we (our) resources and leave we (our) people with nothing.'
Disinformation experts contacted by AFP identified 38 accounts involved in the push -- 'though there are likely far more', said Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University.
Competing interests
Almost all of the bots flagged by Linvill and his colleague Patrick Warren appeared to have stopped posting about galamsey by March, just ahead of the April ban. Many have since been deleted.
One typical phrasing had been repeated by various bots since July 2024, a search on X showed -- but stopped being used completely just hours after the rule was passed.
'China's role is significant, but it would be misleading to scapegoat foreigners alone,' said Senyo Hosi, an anti-galamsey campaigner.
Grace Ansah-Akrofi, a police spokeswoman, said that officers have been 'vigilant and proactive in detecting and dismantling digital networks engaged in disinformation', but did not provide details on the bot campaign specifically.
The Ghanaian government and the Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
If the campaign was affiliated with the government, it would have had to span rival administrations: John Mahama was elected president in December after running for the opposition against incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo.
Rabiu Alhassan, director of FactSpace West Africa, an Accra-based fact-checking and disinformation research group, cautioned that many international and domestic players have mining interests in Ghana.
He also pointed out that Ghana lies just south of the volatile Sahel region, where Russia, the West and other foreign powers have jockeyed for influence.
Hot sauce and football
The accounts also posted about hot sauce, a British football team and Russia's role in the conflict in Mali.
Given the diverse targets, they are likely bots for hire, Linvill said -- though attacking both Russia and China is 'unique'.
Linvill also said that the campaign shed light on a 'blind spot' when it comes to disinformation and influence campaigns, where researchers often focus on Chinese, Russian and Iranian campaigns against Westerners.
'But Westerners are not targeted nearly as much as non-Westerners,' he said.
The most common culprits behind influence campaigns, he added, are governments trying to sway their own people.
In May, the GoldBod announced its first arrests of foreign nationals since the ban. All the men in the group were from India.