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Real-time election integrity monitoring analytics
TikTok Ethiopia electoral information and political landscape, May 2026
Overview of information manipulation and interference within Ethiopia's digital ecosystem that may pose a risk of election interference.
Overview
On 01 June 2026, Ethiopia will hold its seventh general elections, the first since the end of the devastating conflict in Tigray in 2022. Historically, Ethiopia’s political landscape has long been shaped by ethno-political competition, particularly between Oromo and Amhara elites. When the prime minister came to power in 2018, there was initially cooperation between sections of the Oromo and Amhara political leadership. However, this relationship later deteriorated, leading to growing mistrust and perceptions within the Amhara community that they were being politically marginalised under what they viewed as an Oromo-dominated administration.
This report includes:
- 1 This Pulse Report offers a concise overview of information manipulation and interference within Ethiopia's digital ecosystem that may pose a risk of election interference. It identifies weaponised narratives and the key actors who undermine information integrity, and analyses the tactics or techniques used to subvert or polarise local audiences.
Key Findings
- ▸ Local and diaspora protests denounce upcoming elections: coordinated networks are amplifying protests in the Amhara region and in the diaspora that reject the June 2026 elections as a mechanism to entrench state violence. These campaigns use slogans like 'No ballot while bullets fly' to frame the electoral process as a way to prolong alleged genocide and injustices.
- ▸ Online posts amplify Fano militia claims of victory: social media accounts, including those linked to the AFNM, were sharing unverified reports of major military victories over federal forces. These posts, often using cross-platform coordination techniques, claim hundreds of government soldiers have been captured or killed to delegitimise the national defence forces.
- ▸ The state is using force to suppress media freedom: narratives highlight the long-term detention and potential capital punishment of journalists to portray the government as a repressive regime that criminalises journalism. Moreover, campaigns on TikTok use these cases to call for the release of political prisoners and to accuse the ruling party of committing atrocities yet ignoring actual criminals.
- ▸ The Pretoria Agreement is dead: actors misinterpreted an open letter from the TPLF chairman to falsely claim that the federal government had officially withdrawn from the 2022 peace deal. This narrative warns of an imminent return to war to fuel regional instability and mistrust in the peace process.
- ▸ Hate speech targeting the Oromo community: the conflict between the Oromo and Amhara communities in Ethiopia primarily driven by disputes over land, political representation, identity, and security, particularly in contested border areas between the Oromia and Amhara regions has resulted in large-scale civilian casualties, displacement, and recurring ethnic-based attacks, contributing to prolonged instability in the country.
- ▸ Targeted harassment against Ezema female candidates: three female candidates from the Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (Ezema) party have been targeted in posts using AI-generated images, fake videos and false claims linking them to the Fano rebel group, questioning their qualifications as political aspirants.
Published: May 21, 2026 | Analyst: CfA_iLAB_team