Disinformation can start anywhere – and, with the help of the digital grapevine and the political rumor mill, spread to all corners of the African continent within minutes. Fact-checking is a necessity.
As early as 1710, the great British satirist Jonathan Swift wrote: “As the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers; and it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect.”