Fringe YouTube channels promote pro-Kremlin narratives in Africa
dfrlab.org
The DFRLab analyzed twenty suspicious YouTube channels acting in a highly similar fashion, mimicking pro-Kremlin and anti-Western news content in videos targeting African audiences in several countries. The channels used comparable tactics, including possible AI-generated voice narrations, related titles and thumbnails, and publicly available footage.
The channels published content targeting Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Rwanda, and Congo. Their videos covered real news events but presented them in a misleading way with clickbait titles that further sensationalized the content. Notably, one of the channels was cited by a media outlet and in an academic study, highlighting the breakout ability of such content to reach different audiences outside of YouTube.