Revolution online: the opposition trying to destabilize the situation in Sudan using social media. Part 2.

Part 1

In recent years, the Western and European powers have been using sophisticated technologies to overthrow the governments of several African countries. Sudan hasn’t been an exception. Facebook and Twitter profiles have been created with the purpose of escalating the situation, which is expected to be transformed into large-scale rallies, in which case innocent people are harmed.

Rewinding the history of creating Sudanese oppositions groups profiles, where the protest forces were accumulated, you can see that all these pages had been created before demonstrations which took place this year. The best example of these pages is Sudanese Twitters Forum. 

When created in 2017, the direction of Forum got Twitter profile and started to manage it in the end of summer 2018. The organization began to carry out media companies aimed at disseminating information about the crimes of the regime in Sudan. According to their statement, the purpose was to support young Sudanese people in disseminating accurate information about developments in the country. However, in the reality, it was anti-government propaganda based on rumors.

In the same period, increased activity of some opposition organizations can be observed: Girifna that we talked about before and the page of Sudanese popular student Alaa Salah whose activities are dedicated to anti-government demonstrations. The account of the main driving force of the Sudanese protests the Sudanese Professionals Association gained popularity too (800 000 subscribes). Until December 2018, it was almost inactive. In addition, the Central committee of Sudan doctors appeared in the last month of the same year can be included in this group.

     

Meanwhile, the Sudan Professionals Association is in close collaboration with Sudanese Twitter Association. Among other things, the last one made the web-site for SPA (this information is stated on the site). Meanwhile, it has long been working closely with the Forum. They also jointly signed a declaration for Freedom and Change, which proves their close contact.

When distributed messages captured the headlines among users, they were invited to join the protest movement. For this purpose, certain hashtags were used, which had to be actively promoted in social networks. Later, in September 2018, this initiative was supported by the electronic newspaper Al-Rakoba, which wrote material on the success of promoting opposition views among local residents through social networks.

It should be noted that Al-Rakoba is not at all a simple e-newspaper with coverage of Sudanese protests. Its editors are in Saudi Arabia and considered to be close to Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the National Umma Party. This man had previously lived in London and met with British authorities. He also gave a speech at the Chatham House, British think tank in international relations. After this meeting, an article was published in the British media Sky News Arabiya. The material is dedicated to the use of hashtags by the Sudanese Twitter Forum to incite protests.

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