The Clique

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in the Midst of months of anti-government demonstrations, an online information battle is going on in Algeria . Protesters try to swat away annoying Trolls - also flies to as "electronic".

The interim President of the North African country recently announced that.

It is the latest twist in a year of political drama began in February and led to the.

But the protesters want more reforms need to continue on the road - and the battle for the future of the country, especially grumpy on Social Media was flooded with wrong information and fake news.

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What exactly is going on in Algeria ?

On February 22, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decision to run for a fifth term. He had occupied the chair since 1999.

The riots that began surprised The Regime .

"We had not seen this type of protests that since the 1990s," said Dalia Ghanem, a resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.

In an attempt to control the dissemination of information about the protests, internet access was disrupted in several parts of the country, an organization that monitors internet freedom.

Under Pressure , But this was not enough to suppress the protesters " anger, "le pouvoir" - in English, "the Powers that be" - The Clique of generals, business people, and the ruling party politicians, for years, in the midst of The President .

"Then began a Second Phase of cyber warfare," says Raouf Farrah, one of the founders of the collective, and the Activist youth, one of The Movements that have been involved in the protests. He claims that the opponents of the protesters fought back, "the integration of the [internet] Trolls , fake news, fake data, fake accounts. "

you can learn more about the Algerian protests:

What are electronic flies are "'?

The protesters use the term "to describe electronic flies" the troll-like accounts pumping out pro-government or pro-establishment Messages .

and whose actions were reported by the local Media .

The collective of activists of the youth says his Facebook page has been targeted by Trolls .

The collective of Activist youth of the Facebook page was one of their many goals. "You'll see Trolls commenting negatively on our page, and [calls] for the exercise. any name," said Mr Farrah.

He says, the accounts used, the flies of these "electronic" is often A Number of manuscripts of the coordinated activity of parts: they were created after the beginning of the protests, they have less than 100 friends, and they tend to repeat the same comments, over A Number of posts.

Anti-government protests were held Every Friday .

"you just have to create this annoying noise, and try moving it in The Debate ," says BBC Monitoring Carolyn Lamboley, the analysis of the "electronic flies". "It is only to create a type of 'environmental pollution'. "

BBC Trending identify accounts that fit into this pattern of behavior. But it is unclear whether the people who trade these accounts on its own initiative, or if you are part of an organized campaign.

on Hearing more about this story on the Trending podcast from the BBC World Service:

What are flying the "electronic" buzz?

comments and posts published, the seem to be of the "electronic flight", and the focus on a small number of topics, mostly to undermine the protest Movement .

One is the "conspiracy" angle," says Ms Lamboley: "the idea that there is a foreign sponsorship behind the protests that pushed you, perhaps, somehow or sponsored by outside Powers . "France , Algeria is the former colonial, is often "an easy scapegoat," she says.

Many of the other comments that the "electronic flies" suggest that there is still broad support for Mr Bouteflika and the army.

Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was in may 2017.

"it's Sometimes really weird things like "Long-the army'," Ms Lamboley live says. "And this sentence is copied and pasted, which twelve times in a message, so it's not [normal], human behavior. "

Other Messages play on tensions between Algeria , various ethnic groups.

What is fake news?

flies emerged at The same time as the electronic, a treasure trove for fake news stories, online and spread quickly on Social Media .

"It was a place of struggle between the protesters and The Authorities , because many Algerians basically get their information from Facebook," says Omar Al-Ghazzi, an assistant professor in communication and Media at the London School of Economics. to expose

in this climate of political uncertainty, a Facebook page was created, fake news about Algeria :

Fake news DZ, followed by More Than 70,000 people on Facebook.

"When the protests began, me and a few friends have seen that there is an increase in the published fake news," says Nassim, one of The Creators of the page.

Nassim is an Algerian IT specialist, headquartered In Paris , despite his lack of journalistic training, he says, the unmasking of fake Messages in his Spare Time can search a fairly simple task, - "as easy as a Google. "

Since the page was created in April, Fake-News-DZ (". dz" is prohibited in Algeria , the top-level internet domain), it has exposed More Than 300 fake news stories. Many of them were anti-protest. Among them, after The President 's farewell were no longer reports that the demonstration was necessary, and that Algeria is booming.

Nassim says, most of the political fake news comes from the anti-protest side or to be designed seems to be some divisions among the demonstrators". But other stories suggest that some of the protest supporters have provided also Disinformation tactics.

"in the summer, where the protests were less massive. we saw some people share photographs of the protests, saying, 'This is what happened Today . "But they were old pictures, old protests," Nassim BBC Trending said.

demonstrators tear a large Billboard with a picture of the former President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika . What the Algerians are doing to do that?

A Number of opposition politicians have condemned the use of fake Messages and electronic flies against the protest Movement , which may be on the political establishment to blame for such tactics.

There is no solid evidence to suggest that the government or the army are directly involved in any Disinformation campaign. Neither the Algerian Embassy in the UK or in Algeria , the Ministry of communications, responded to BBC requests for comment on this story.

the ruling party politicians have tried in the times accused the Algerian Media , in "Disinformation ," of their own. Algeria currently issued each year by the reporters Without borders " group.

A Facebook spokesman against " BBC Trending : "We do not want our platform to be used to manipulate people, and we are working aggressively to combat the spread of Disinformation . "

The Company pointed to the fact that he removed the pages and profiles to spread in a coordinated manner Disinformation . In a period of three months, earlier this year, it has after 2. 2 billion fake profiles.

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algeria protests, internet trolls, fake news

Source of news: bbc.com