Researched by Alfa Shaban
Social media has become increasingly popular as campaign vehicles for elections across the world, thanks to the direct communication, mobilisation, and voter engagement potential it possesses, despite the downsides of misinformation and platform manipulation.
From Facebook ads to viral posts on Instagram and TikTok, influencer posts on X and YouTube ads, politicians continue to sell their message through multiple platforms before, during and even after elections.
The Gambia is inching towards high-stakes presidential elections in December 2026, and reliance on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and, to an extent, X, continues to grow as parties, candidates, the media and activists engage the wider population.
This report investigates a Facebook page (National Peoples Party-Gambia) purporting to be the official page of the ruling National Peoples Party (NPP) headed by President Adama Barrow.
RelatedNews
In a recent report about President Barrow firing two power-sector appointees, Dubawa referred to the page as the National People’s Party (NPP)’s official Facebook page even though the claim about the double sacking amid power outages was rated False.
Could the ruling party’s official Facebook page be churning false claims about the government? This is the question that piqued our interest in investigating the page.
What we found:
The page had the following basic metrics at the time of our analysis:
- 4705 = Followers
- 25 = Following
- 2019 = Page creation (National Peoples Party)
- 2020 = Name change (National Peoples Party-Gambia)
Analysis of September 2026 posts
FactSpace West Africa analysed all posts made on the page in September to ascertain whether it was actually reporting on matters relating to the NPP. We found five posts, of which 60% were false.
There was no post on the core activities of President Adama Barrow or other NPP functionaries despite the multiple campaign engagements by the president in September, even as the government battled to cure spiralling power blackout protests.
| Date | Content | Verdict |
| September 8 | Posts about President’s admission of power challenges | True |
| September 8 | President fires 2 appointees, dissolves NAWEC board | False |
| September 9 | Question about President Barrow’s resignation | NA |
| September 10 | Curfew from 10 pm to 5 am in Banjul and GWR | False |
| September 10 | Repost of curfew | False |
What are the official Facebook pages of the ruling NPP?
FactSpace West Africa checked the official website of the NPP to verify the official social media pages of the party. We found that the only official Facebook pages listed were Barrow PROG (the president’s verified handle) and Barrow 2026 (the official re-election page).
We further asked the Artificial Intelligence chatbot on the site, Ask Barrow AI, which also confirmed that the two pages above were the only official pages.
Our message to the Barrow 2026 page via Facebook Messenger and an inquiry to the official NPP email (info@npp.gm) has not been responded to.
Conclusion
Ahead of the December presidential election, social media continues to drive political conversations from candidates and parties – the policies and respective records, as well as promises being made to the electorate.
The challenges of AI, misinformation and disinformation will also be present before, during and after the election, even as fact-checkers and other players in the information integrity work to secure the integrity of the polls.
