Farmajo's troll farms and crackdown on journalists outed by Amnesty International

[Prime Minister]

Pro-government political trolls also harass and intimidate journalists and other individuals who criticize the government. One prominent opposition leader in Mogadishu described the trolls he faces when he campaigns on social media. He alleged that most of the trolls were being paid by the Federal Government of Somalia to distort political conversations on social media and smear his ideas.

Other journalists complain of this as well. One journalist explained that trolling has become almost systematic. It affected his work greatly, he told Amnesty International that he has become very stressed and nervous about covering stories that would be seen as controversial. Another journalist confirmed the systemic nature of the trolling around these issues and said it is clear that the trolls are likely working together because they are often recently created accounts, with few followers and no personal traits associated with the accounts. The accounts also share the exact same messaging in some instances, including any punctuation or other spelling errors.

One journalist told Amnesty International that he was compelled to leave his place of employment due to his support for a political opposition figure on his personal Facebook profile. He was offered an increase in salary by an official from the office of the President allegedly to stop publicly supporting the candidate, which he declined. According to the journalist, an official from the President’s Office then contacted his old teacher to convince him to stop his journalism and went as far as to offer him a job working in the President’s Office of Communications. Shortly thereafter, his employer announced that they were receiving money from the government, and that journalists working there were no longer permitted to post information that was critical to the government in either a personal or professional capacity. The journalist was forced to resign and to start working at another news agency.

https://www.amnesty.nl/content/uploads/2020/02/Somalia_We-live-in-perpetual-fear_AFR-52.1442.2020-ENG_FINAL-1.pdf?x37601