With COVID-19 now steadily making its way across Africa, misleading or downright false information is becoming an increasingly serious problem across the continent. Posts like this one warn Africans on Twitter and WhatsApp about buying used mattresses from China because they are infected with the deadly virus.
There’s a consistent theme in many of these posts. Africa is often portrayed as a victim of Chinese malevolence which is clearly linked to deeper insecurities about their countries’ economic dependence on the PRC that has surfaced in response to COVID-19.
