On a bright Tuesday morning in Abuja, a roomful of young digital storytellers, content creators, and social media voices gathered around tables, laptops, and notebooks, ready to learn something deeper than algorithms or engagement metrics. They were micro-influencers from Lagos, Enugu, and the Federal Capital Territory—three states stretching across three geopolitical zones of Nigeria—and they had been invited by Amnesty International for a special kind of training. This was not about selling products or gaining followers. It was about using their online influence to promote human rights, verify facts before sharing them, push back against misinformation, and model responsible digital…

Let’s be honest: the 2026 midterm election is not going to feel like a normal election. It will be louder, stranger, and more artificial than anything we’ve seen before, thanks to a perfect storm of money, social-media manipulation, bots, and AI-generated content. That’s the warning from Mark Trahant, the veteran Indigenous journalist behind Native Vote 2026, who has spent months watching the machinery behind the races. In a recent analysis, Trahant writes that there are people—cough Donald Trump and Elon Musk cough—spending enormous sums on attack ads and misinformation designed for social media. The goal is not simply to persuade…