The viral circulation of false information online in Kenya – and in much of Africa – often mimics the oral manner in which rumours and gossip travelled the village grapevine.
With WhatsApp, people are likely to be in groups with their friends and relatives, or to message people they personally know and trust. The assumptions embedded in these personal relationships in a society with experiential and communal worldviews, such as innate accuracy, make WhatsApp a viable agent of misinformation.