Monrovia – In recent days, several screenshots showing a purported WhatsApp conversation between the Coalition for Democratic Change – CDC Senatorial candidate for Lofa County, Moses Y. Kollie and an unknown NEC official has been making rounds on Facebook. One of the persons sharing the screenshots is George Saah, a staunch supporter of the opposition Unity Party.
Mr. Kollie is one of the seven senatorial candidates who participated in the election in Lofa County. He obtained 37,200 of the total votes cast in that election while his rival, Momo T. Cyrus, an Independent candidate won with 37,621 votes.
The screenshots of the WhatsApp chats contained exchanges about manipulating the October 10 senatorial election results from Lofa County in favor of the CDC Candidate.
These allegations seem to undermine the independence of the NEC Magisterial Office in the county.
However, a verification of the screenshots found them to be fabricated and misleading.
To arrive at this conclusion, we took a keen look at the purported screenshot involding Mr. Kollie and the unidentified NEC worker and found several discrepencies.
In the upper left corner of this screenshot, there are edit icons on the screenshot showing a pencil icon; this is something that is not seen on any authentic whatsapp chat.
Also, there is an x at the upper right of the date and time of the screenshot, something that looks very different from an authentic whatsapp chat.
Another observation in the verification of this chat is the quality of the image of profile picture of one of the persons involved in the purpoted exchanges.
To further analyze this screenshot, we asked our tech expert, Carol Doe. Doe is an Information and Communication Technology for Development Professional who is very verse in the use of social media tools.
After a careful analysis of the screenshots by Doe, this is what he told our Fact Checking Desk: “The screenshot appears fake”.
He continued: “The chat wallpaper or background look and feel is something that WhatsApp does not have. Also, the edit icons of the chat showing pencil are not authentic”.
Conclusion
Based on careful look at the screenshot and the analysis provided by our tech expert, we conclude that the viral WhatsApp screenshots claiming to be a chat exchange between CDC Senatorial Candidate Moses Y. Kollie and a NEC worker in the county is fake.
The chat was fabricated to spread disinformation. Please note that WhatsApp screenshots can be faked using several online platforms that offer these services for free.
Here is how you can identify fake screenshots with the help of this article detailing explanation on icons, fonts, and spacing in WhatsApp chats.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.