Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Investigation: European Group Likely Manipulated Twitter Conversations in Kenya About Reproductive Rights, Health, published by the Mozilla Foundation on 22 February 2022, what representations she is making to developed nation partner states on the need to prevent organisations in their countries from engaging in social media manipulation or disinformation campaigns in (a) least developed and (b) developing states; and what assessment she has made of whether UK-based organisations are engaging in similar activities in (i) Kenya or (ii) other least developed or developing states in Africa.

As part of our diplomatic engagement, HMG works closely with partners and allies in sub-Saharan Africa to increase awareness of and build resilience to disinformation. In Kenya, the British High Commission is working to understand the nature of the wider threat and its impacts. This includes targeted research led by British and Kenyan academics on social media disinformation and hate speech, as well as support to local organisations to monitor disinformation and build resilience to it. The British High Commissioner has also established dialogue with social media platforms (META, Google and Twitter) and facilitated networking with the Kenyan media and civil society. The research is beginning to identify non-Kenyan organisations that may be active in Kenya. To date we have not identified any UK based organisations engaging in such activities in Kenya.