UAE-Saudi allegedly launch propaganda to support Tunisian President
Social media is a notorious vehicle for disinformation campaigns. Deploying coordinated disinformation and influence campaigns as a means of cyber warfare has today become a popular tactic.
The political crises in Tunisia have sparked a wave of propaganda and manipulation on social media arising primarily from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both the countries have tried to distort the narrative to prove Tunisian President Kais Saied’s decision to suspend parliament and remove the former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi.
Soon after the news broke out, the hashtag stating Tunisians’ revolt against the Muslim brotherhood started trending on Twitter. After analysing social media accounts, it is unclear whether this trend represents the organic public opinion. If not then, whose opinion is it?
However, most users who tweeted with the hashtags belonged to Saudi Arabia or the UAE. In addition, the top 10 most influential accounts on the label were all Gulf influencers located in Saudi Arabia or the UAE.
There is no doubt that UAE and Saudi own dozens of satellite television channels, such as Al-Arabiya and Sky Arabic, in addition to newspapers, radios, and digital platforms. Hence, launching disinformation campaigns is not a big task for them.
During the pandemic, disinformation campaigns targeting Qatar reached new heights. Fake twitter accounts promoting anti-Qatar content originated from Saudi Arabia, and were promoted by Saudi influencers. The campaign soon saw “coup in Qatar” and was trending in both the countries. Clearly, the crisis became a golden opportunity to re-start the GCC problem and re-ignite the rivalry.
In December 2019, researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory uncovered a vast network of social media accounts orchestrating a large-scale disinformation campaign designed to promote the Saudi-led alliance and introduce mistrust between Turkish and Qatari leadership.
Meanwhile, the UAE also wanted to pull Tunisia closer to its orbit of influence and away from Qatar and Turkey’s. In order to do so, the UAE cultivated relations with Tunisia’s media sector, private businesses, financial institutions, and liberal/secular political Tunisian groups that were ideologically and firmly opposed to Islamism. With this step, the Emiratis have gained their share of influence in the North African country.
