SUDAN NEWS ALERT: New York Times - ‘We’re at War’: A Covert Social Media Campaign Boosts Military Rulers
New York Times’ feature piece reveals that New Waves, a digital marketing company in Cairo, deployed keyboard warriors in a covert operation to praise Sudan’s military on social media.
New Waves, run by former Egyptian military officer and self-described expert on “internet warfare” Amr Hussein, paid new recruits $180 a month to write pro-military messages using fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram.
New Waves operates from a military-owned housing project in Cairo, and its messages mirrored the geopolitical interests of Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
One of its Facebook pages, Sudan Alyoum, published 17 articles accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to overthrow Sudan’s transitional military council and 60 articles supporting Himedti’s leadership.
Sudanese activists noted the proliferation of fake tweets via Arabic language tics that suggested they had been written by non-Sudanese.