Summary
AI-generated disinformation—including deepfakes, bot networks, and voice cloning—plays a role in amplifying ethnic and religious divisions, undermining trust in democratic processes. This study conducts a discursive analysis of how AI disinformation interacts with elections in West Africa. It discusses case studies from Nigeria (2023), Ghana (2024), and Liberia (2023) that demonstrate how AI Manipulates voter perceptions through fabricated media, cloned content, and premature victory claims, and explores the role of social media in disseminating misinformation, with platforms struggling with linguistic gaps, inadequate moderation, and echo chambers. While AI aids voter management and engagement, its misuse poses risks to election credibility. Mitigation requires multi-stakeholder collaboration, robust digital public infrastructure (DPI), and policies targeting AI-generated content. Strengthening media literacy, fact-checking, and platform accountability is critical to safeguarding democracy in West Africa’s evolving digital landscape.
