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The Ghana Fact-checking Coalition has launched a report on its coverage of the 2024 general election.
The report which is titled ‘Countering Electoral Disinformation: Lessons From Ghana’s 2024 Elections,’ details the coalition’s observations on debunking mis/disinformation during Ghana’s election.
The Coalition, made up of Fact-Check Ghana, Dubawa Ghana, and Ghana Fact, operated two media situation rooms, one in Accra and the other in Tamale during the period of the Ghanaian elections to monitor misinformation and disinformation and produce fact-check reports to counter them.
According to the report, the fact-check reports were published or broadcast on a network of over one hundred media outlets in English and forty-five (45) local languages. The coalition also used bulk Short Messaging Service (SMS) to make fact-checking reports more accessible.
The findings of the coalition’s report show that “Bad actors employed various tactics like using generative AI to produce disinformation, smear campaigns and recycling old images and videos to mislead the public.”
Mis/disinformation content that was in videos (40.15%) and images (29.2%) topped the types of claims that were frequently monitored by the Ghana Fact-checking Coalition. This was followed by text which represented 25.55% of the claims were text-based, with audio format content placing last with 5.11% of the claims.
This indicates a preference for videos and images to spread potentially false and misleading information with most of the claims coming from social media.
In his keynote address at the launch of the report which took place on January 29, 2025, George Sarpong, the executive secretary of the National Media Commission, praised the coalition for successfully maintaining a clean information environment before, during, and after the elections. He emphasised the coalition’s importance as a reliable source of verified information, especially when the public had doubts.
“This time, we were not shooting in the dark. Now, the GFC was providing you with empirical info about what kind of misinformation was going on,” he said.
Delivering a presentation on the report at the launch, the Programme Manager of the Independent Journalism Project at the MFWA, Kwaku Krobea Asante, mentioned that social media was a huge contributor to the disinformation the coalition worked on.
“Coming into this year, people had concerns about the impact and the influence of AI on elections. Looking at the operation of AI in 2023, people were looking at how it will influence the year 2024 and the election that will be conducted,” Mr Asante said.
The report highlighted how bad actors use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to create and spread disinformation. This technology’s accessibility and largely unregulated use have enhanced the development and dissemination of false information.
Dr. Aurelia Ayisi from the School of Communication at the University of Ghana, who is also a member of the Coalition, urged the Coalition to strengthen its collaboration and broaden the impact of its work.
“Their work has set a benchmark for transparency, innovation and collaboration in safeguarding Ghana’s democracy. Fact-checking must be a continuous commitment to truth and accountability and democratic integrity and not a one-time event,” she added.
The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition’s work was supported by CDD-Ghana, Full Fact AI, Africa Check, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Google News Initiative and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).
