Somali journalists’ Facebook pages hit amid China, Türkiye partnerships

MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – A coordinated wave of Facebook account suspensions, removals and false death reports struck Somali journalists and independent media outlets over the weekend of Sept. 12–13, according to the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), landing within days of separate Chinese- and Turkish-backed “strategic communications” engagements with the Somali government in Mogadishu.

SJS, an independent journalists’ union, said the attacks — which it has continued to track into a second wave reported Sept. 18 — included suspended pages, deleted content, fraudulent copyright claims and cases in which Meta, Facebook’s parent company, marked living journalists as deceased through its memorialization feature.

Accounts suspended, journalists ‘memorialized’

Exiled journalist Zakariye Mohamud Timacadde said his Facebook page and personal profile, followed by more than 1 million people, were suspended around midnight on Sunday, Sept. 13, with no notification or explanation from Meta. The page had recently carried his reporting on forced evictions affecting hundreds of thousands of families in Mogadishu and on rising water prices charged by local companies in the capital. It remained unavailable as of the following Monday.

Journalist Farah Abdulkadir Mohamed, who has more than 330,000 Facebook followers, told SJS his personal account was memorialized without warning — a feature Meta applies when a user is reported dead. Abdulkadir said he received hundreds of calls and messages from worried relatives after the change appeared, and that he had no way to reassure them because the same page still displayed the death notice. His account was restored the following day, again with no explanation.

Gaylan Media, a diaspora-run outlet founded by Abdulkadir with more than 1.2 million Facebook followers and known for coverage of Somali security and political affairs, was removed from the platform the same weekend.

A day earlier, on Saturday, Sept. 12, the page of London-based journalist Abdijaliil Osman — who hosts an interview program with roughly 191,000 followers — was also memorialized. “I actually do not have an idea who did this,” Osman told SJS. His page was later restored.

Copyright claims used as a takedown tool

SJS separately documented a pattern of fraudulent copyright complaints used to strip down critical reporting. Himilo Media, a Mogadishu outlet, said more than a dozen of its reports on local protests against Turkish military involvement in Somalia were hit with copyright claims in a single week; when the outlet disputed the claims, Meta rejected its appeals and the content came down regardless.

Reviewing the claims, SJS found accounts filing them — operating under names including “The Odyssey” and “SACEM” — had no discernible online presence despite claiming to be content creators. Posing as a prospective client, an SJS investigator was told by the operator of “The Odyssey” that a fake copyright strike against a media organization would cost $5,000; the same person claimed to do “communication work for the Somali government,” SJS said. Kaab TV and SJS’s own press-freedom team reported similar copyright attacks the same week.

Facebook pages tied to Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni and Jubaland’s presidency were also removed in the same period, according to SJS and a follow-up report by Garowe Online.

The Turkey and China connection

The attacks followed, by about a week, a Chinese-sponsored “Strategic Communications Forum” held in Mogadishu; SJS said sources told it that Chinese entities had separately invited Somali individuals to train and tour in China, including at a facility run by the Chinese Communist Party.

On Sept. 12, Somalia’s Ministry of Information announced a Turkish-sponsored Strategic Communications Conference in Mogadishu and said Minister of Information Abdifatah Qasim Mohamud had met with Deniz Demir, coordinator of the Center for Combating Disinformation at the Turkish presidency’s communications directorate, to discuss “strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of information,” according to a ministry statement on X.

Five days earlier, on Sept. 7, Qasim had said publicly that Somalia’s actions against social media accounts carrying what he called terrorist propaganda had risen from 5,000 in 2012 to 82,000 in 2026 — a figure he did not break down or substantiate with an account list. That statement is not confirmed to relate directly to the weekend’s journalist-targeted incidents.

Government denies censorship role, but questions remain

A former Ministry of Information employee told SJS that journalists’ names and content had been forwarded to the ministry and the National Communications Authority. A former ministry official confirmed to SJS that the department maintains a working relationship with Meta, but said it has been used to help restore wrongly suspended accounts, not to censor media.

SJS said there is no independently verified evidence establishing that Somalia’s federal government directed all of the incidents affecting politicians, journalists and media outlets, and Garowe Online separately reported that no evidence has surfaced showing the Turkish government itself removed accounts or filed copyright claims. Meta’s East Africa team did not respond to SJS’s request for comment.

Not the first time

Similar tactics surfaced in Somalia in late 2024, when local media organizations documented more than 32 Facebook accounts — including those of Puntland’s presidency, ministers and politicians — affected in comparable attacks, some involving fraudulent death documents submitted to trigger memorialization. The account of former Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud Farole, disabled at the time, has still not been restored, Garowe Online reported. Those 2024 cases were never publicly explained in full.

Calls for accountability

SJS Secretary-General Abdalle Ahmed Mumin said the organization was “extremely concerned” by what he described as a coordinated wave of online attacks, adding that such actions “directly undermine journalists’ ability to communicate with the public, report on issues of public interest and maintain contact with their audiences, families and communities.”

SJS is calling on Meta to investigate the incidents, restore wrongly affected accounts and explain what happened, and on Minister Qasim to disclose the scope of the ministry’s partnerships with Chinese and Turkish entities and guarantee they are not used to intimidate journalists. Mumin said Somalia “should not follow in the footsteps of Turkey or China,” citing restrictions on independent media in both countries.

The Ministry of Information has not issued a direct public response to SJS’s Sept. 14 findings as of this writing.