The media relayed puzzling information about the #FreeSenegal movement this morning. It seems that several Twitter accounts, animated from abroad, have stimulated the trend since the imprisonment of Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko.
According to the Africa Intelligence letter, the Senegalese presidency has received evidence of the involvement of thousands of animated Twitter accounts in foreign countries in the popular uprising in March, which was played out in part on social networks. Technical notes were reportedly given to the Senegalese intelligence chief. According to the content of these studies, thousands of Twitter accounts that relayed the #FreeSenegal trend were coordinated and probably paid or created by a company.
Thousands of animated accounts outside Senegal
Indeed, in Senegal, since March 3, a wave of demonstrations shook the country. At the start of the protest, the Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef), sought to free its leader Ousmane Sonko. The latter was accused of rape and was subject to legal proceedings.
After sometimes violent protests, the hashtag #FreeSenegal was born on social networks. The movement that was created against the government of Macky Sall, if it was born spontaneously, would then have been fed almost automatically on Twitter. Over the course of the protests, eleven protesters had died.
Nevertheless, as a sign of appeasement, the Senegalese president launched an appeal for justice. The latter agreed to release Sonko by placing him under judicial supervision. Since then, the #FreeSenegal movement has started to lose its momentum on Twitter. The intervention of the heads of religious brotherhoods, eminent figures in Senegalese society, also supported the government's peace effort.
From Burma to Senegal, via Riyadh
It therefore seems that the movement on social networks was therefore the result of a well-ordered digital communication strategy, after spontaneous beginnings. Indeed, Twitter accounts having retweeted publications under #FreeSenegal would have, as a common point, to have promoted, before March 3, the Rohingyas of Burma or the Wahhabi ideology. Coordinated accounts, which retweeted each other. This tends to confirm the hypothesis of a foreign intervention in the #FreeSenegal movement.
According to corroborating sources, it is above all from another African country that this action against the Senegalese power has been fueled. Indeed, affirms to the Journal of Africa a specialist in digital watch, "46% of Twitter accounts which posted messages with the hashtag #FreeSenegal were based in Nigeria".