{"id":15410,"date":"2020-04-22T14:30:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T14:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/?p=15410"},"modified":"2020-05-08T14:34:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T14:34:01","slug":"the-princes-of-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/informnapalm.org\/en\/the-princes-of-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"The princes of Ghana and Nigeria send letters not only about inherited wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

This time, they failed. They failed to provoke confusion and subvert society, intoxicate its information, social and political environment. Although the time is very good \u2013 during the COVID-19 pandemic, society is vulnerable and susceptible to any information, and in the autumn, there is the election and a new political cycle begins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In March, the social network platforms Facebook and Twitter had deleted over 200 accounts and web pages that were active in Ghana and Nigeria and were broadcasting to the USA. All these accounts were created by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) \u2013 the initiative that is better known as \u2018the troll factory\u2019. In February, the secret services of Ghana identified \u2018the troll factory\u2019 operating in the suburbs of Accra, the capital of Ghana, and organised the raid against it. This factory was established by the incorporated in Ghana non-profit organisation Eliminating Barriers for the Liberation in Africa (EBLA). The title of this organisation sounds very similar to those of the Cold War times, when the Soviets were patronising African countries and were establishing the \u2018non-governmental\u2019 organisations with very similar titles as the above mentioned. EBLA was executing the so-called social network management order from Russia. The customer \u2013 the Internet Research Agency (\u2018the troll factory\u2019) incorporated in St. Petersburg, whose owner is the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, often referred to as \u2018Putin\u2019s Chef\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\u041f\u043e\u0432\u0430\u0440<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook reported that on its platform, it deleted 49 public and 85 personal pages. From Instagram, the company deleted 69 accounts and 71 accounts were deleted by the social network Twitter. Those accounts were \u2018nurturing\u2019 their followers.<\/p>\n

\"EBLA\"<\/p>\n

For example, one Facebook account had 13,200 followers, on Twitter one such account was followed by 68,000 followers, and several Instagram accounts had about 263,200 followers. Social networks\u2019 platforms reported that the information published on these accounts was mainly (65 per cent) addressed to the black population of the USA, it \u201dwas promoting rifts, provoking controversy and arguments on the basis of racial and civil rights issues\u201d. Social networks also noted that in the contents of the accounts there was no direct discussions in relation to the elections in the USA, \u201cthere were no agitations and discrediting of the presidential candidates\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe troll factory\u201d in Ghana and Nigeria was operating under the same principle as that in St. Petersburg, in 2016, which was trying to influence the US presidential elections.\u201d It appeared that the princes and lawyers of Nigeria have been dispatching the e-mails the content of which is not only about the inherited assets and properties.<\/p>\n

Deja vu<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe troll factory\u201d in Ghana and Nigeria was operating under the same principle as that based in St. Petersburg, in 2016, which was trying to influence the USA presidential elections. After the robust study, in February 2018, the US authorities brought charges against 13 Russian citizens and 3 organisations on illegal intervention in the USA presidential election. Among the above mentioned, there was the Internet Research Agency (\u2018the troll factory\u2019) and also two companies \u2013 Concord Management and Concord Catering \u2013 all owned by the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. The USA has imposed sanctions against Yevgeny Prigozhin and his companies. In 2019, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, said that \u201cthe US administration will continue to work to ensure that Yevgeny Prigozhin and others like him find no refuge\u201d. It must be noted that the robust journalistic investigation on the activity of \u201cthe troll factory\u201d in Ghana and Nigeria was carried out by the journalists of the CNN news service.<\/p>\n

The CNN journalists revealed that in \u201cthe troll factory\u201d of Ghana were operating sixteen 20-year old persons, who were creating and managing the accounts using the mobile telephones that they were supplied with, and they would receive the messages and visual information from Russia. They were working in a rented house, sitting around the table. Their \u2018business day\u2019 would start in the afternoon and would last until late evening, when there would be a business day in the USA.<\/p>\n