The United States government are openly funding an anti-China news website targeted at Africans titled “Africa Verified”. Describing itself on Google as “Your home for trustworthy news” and on its home page: “Your home for reliable and credible news on COVID-19 and beyond”.- the website focuses almost exclusively on content critical of Beijing.
The website offers very little information on who runs it or who is behind it, but a tagline at the bottom simply states: “Africa Verified is a media platform sponsored by the United States of America”. A WHOIS review of the website’s registration found that information behind the registrar has been hidden, and that the site is unusually based in Panama than America itself.
Its content offers a handful of very specific, cherry picked news stories which are not so much about Africa or general world events as they are negatively focused on China, or positively orientated towards the United States’ contributions on the continent. For example, as the below screenshot details, it has a selection of articles promoting US exercises in the “Indo-Pacific”, promoting a Huawei ban and also American vaccine progress, what exactly has this got to do with Africa itself?
The revelation comes amid reports emerging of American embassies using twitter to sponsor Anti-China advertisements in African Countries, with such adverts being reported in Senegal. It appears the US government are launching a full blown propaganda war against China’s role on the African continent.
