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• About 48% of Africans do not know what a deepfake is.
• Seventy-four percent of respondents from Mauritius, Egypt, Botswana, South Africa, and Kenya fell for deepfakes.
• Deepfakes as agents of disinformation and misinformation are a threat to African democracy.

A worrying 74% of working-age respondents from Mauritius, Egypt, Botswana, South Africa, and Kenya were duped by deepfake communications, according to a survey by security awareness company KnowBe4.

A deepfake is aptly described as false information spread on the internet via social media, email, or any other internet communication platform.

The survey was carried out on 800 people between the ages of 18 and 54 to ascertain their level of awareness of deepfakes.

According to the survey results, "just over 50% of respondents said they were aware of deepfakes, while 48% were unsure or had little understanding of what they were. While a significant percentage of respondents were not clear as to what a deepfake was".

The senior vice president of Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, Anna Collard, noted WhatsApp messages from friends or colleagues were the most trusted among respondents, despite the fact they could be deepfakes.

"It is also important to note that nearly 67% of respondents would trust a message from a friend or legitimate contact on WhatsApp or a direct message while 43% would trust a video, 42% an email and 39% a voice note.

"Any one of these could be a fake that the trusted contact did not recognise or their account was hacked," she said.

Since the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital rights advocates have been on the lookout for deepfakes as a new threat to peaceful, free, and fair elections, particularly in Africa.

In 2018, the now defunct Cambridge Analytica was mired in a scandal where opposition parties in Kenya and Nigeria accused the British company of involvement in disinformation projects meant to affect election outcomes.

With elections due in Nigeria this weekend, then Zimbabwe, eSwatini, Madagascar, and other African countries later this year, deepfakes could cause harm.

"These deepfake platforms [ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion] are capable of creating civil and societal unrest when used to spread mis- or disinformation in political and election campaigns and remain a dangerous element in modern digital society.

"This is cause for concern and asks for more awareness and understanding among the public and policymakers," added Collard.

In Nigeria, the African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights noted messaging around the shortage of fuel and confusion around the Central Bank's old naira notes was likely going to affect the smooth running of elections.

As such, the body called for "unhindered proactive access for information for fostering public trust".

Last week, an Israeli firm called "Team Jorge" by an investigating team of journalists under Forbidden Stories was exposed for allegedly hacking, sabotaging, and spreading disinformation in at least 30 elections around the world, with 60% of those in Africa.

Some of the targets mentioned by "Team Jorge" to Forbidden Stories were two aides working in the campaign team of Kenya's William Ruto who became president in August last year.