# The Business of Lies: Inside Nigeria’s Profitable Disinformation Economy ## When Death Becomes a Clickbait Business In the chaotic, attention-hungry world of Nigerian social media, a peculiar and disturbing trend has emerged—one where death announcements are manufactured for profit rather than reported as fact. The most jarring example came when rumors swept across X (formerly Twitter) claiming that Deja Kosoko, the six-year-old daughter of popular musician Adekunle Gold, had died from a rare genetic condition. The post included what appeared to be a screenshot of an announcement from the singer himself, lending it an air of authenticity that fooled…

In communities across Georgia, the arrival of data centers has begun to feel like the arrival of a rumor that simply will not die. The buildings themselves are quiet, windowless and enormous, often rising quickly out of red clay fields or old industrial lots. But the stories swirling around them are anything but quiet. At school pickup lines, in coffee shops, and on neighborhood social media pages, people share alarming half-truths: data centers are draining the water supply, causing rolling blackouts, poisoning the land, and stealing clean energy from families. Some of these tales are honest misunderstandings, repeated with good…