Social media influencers and political influence operations: The Data Boys example in Nigeria

This study examines how ‘Data Boys’ covertly used social media platforms to promote, rehabilitate and sustain the image of political leaders in Nigeria. Data for this study are from an online qualitative survey of 25 social media influencers in Nigeria. Three broad themes (hyping a politician, remuneration and results) emerged from the data. Results reveal that Data Boys promote their political leaders by equivocation of identities, exaggerating the performance of their principals, falsifying corruption allegations against their principals’ competitor and concealing the transgressions of their principals. The paper conceptualises the rise of Data Boys in Nigeria’s political sphere and highlights ways through which they execute their online operations. The study argues that instead of using their networked communicative power for factual debate and respectful dialogues, that the Data Boys have been used as vehicles for covert message dissemination and other sponsored contents which could potentially go against public interest. The study concludes that the posture of Data Boys is inimical to public relations practice as their overtly negative and monolithic view of online influence cheapens the significance of social media influencer praxis and electioneering campaigns in Nigeria.