Disinformation and electronic armies: How Lebanon's political class uses fake news to win elections

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This article first appeared in the New Arab.

With Lebanon’s general election announced for May, media experts and activists fear that establishment politicians will undermine the democratic process by spreading and amplifying disinformation across social media – just as they have done in the past.

Lebanese citizens are looking to the upcoming parliamentary elections as the first step toward ridding themselves of a corrupt political class that has failed to respond to a revolution, a global pandemic, one of the world’s largest-ever non-nuclear explosions and a crippling financial crisis.

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Why hopes remain dim for free and fair elections in Lebanon

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This article originally appeared in the New Arab.

On 15 May, Lebanon will hold parliamentary elections for the first time since the popular uprising that targeted the country’s political elite three years ago.

Since then, anger at the ruling class has grown exponentially due to a self-inflicted economic crisis that has plunged millions into poverty, locked them out of their bank accounts, and eradicated their savings.

The Beirut port blast on 4 August 2020, which people largely blame on the negligence of the sectarian government, compounded the grief. More than 200 people died while hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

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THE POWER OF LEBANON’S ASSASSINS

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This piece originally appeared on Inkstick.

Political assassinations and a lack of justice are part of Lebanon’s post-civil war legacy.

On Oct. 13, 1990, Lebanon’s civil war officially ended. The leaders of the various fighting factions had reached something of a stalemate as Syria’s army occupied much of the country, so in 1989 the surviving members of Lebanon’s last parliament — elected in 1972 — adopted the Ta’if agreement, where the power balance would be redrawn between religious sects. Five months after the war’s official end date, all stakeholders agreed on amnesty, which decided that none of the war’s various forms of violence, including murders and massacres, would be prosecuted at any point in the future. That decision has shaped the post-war period, paving the way for morally corrupt warlords to become a class of kleptocrats that occupy official government posts. More significantly, this new political system meant that pursuing justice was inconceivable and potentially lethal.

Since the war ended, the country has seen dozens of journalists, thinkers, politicians, and security agents assassinated. After each one, Lebanon’s political class has united in maintaining an impunity climate. Sometimes, it’s widely known who is behind the murders. According to them, the pursuit of justice for political assassinations would unravel the fragile status quo and plunge the country into civil war. That nihilist logic has accelerated Lebanon’s demise by discouraging and blocking efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.

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Analysis: Why the Beirut Port Deal with CMA CGM Is Business as Usual

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This story originally appeared on TIMEP’s website.

In February 2022, the French-Lebanese company CMA CGM was awarded a 10-year contract to manage, operate, and maintain Beirut port’s container terminal in a deal the shipping giant says will see $33 million invested into the port. CMA CGM is the world’s third largest container-shipping firm and also controls the container terminal in Tripoli—Lebanon’s second largest city—and has a presence in Syria’s port city Latakia. While the company’s profile may make it the natural choice to operate the container terminal in the Beirut port, the bidding process’ lack of transparency raises concerns that the Lebanese government and political establishment have failed to learn any lessons from the conditions that led to the August 2020 disaster.

Familiarity with Lebanon’s shipping sector

CMA CGM was already familiar with Lebanon’s shipping sector. Before the August 4, 2020 blast, the company handled 29 percent of the total traffic at Beirut’s port and 83 percent at Tripoli’s. The container port did not sustain as much damage as the rest of the port, meaning it is largely still operable. However, little information has been made public on the bidding process that saw CMA CGM winning the 10-year contract at the Beirut port.

“There was no transparency at all whatsoever,” said Fady Abboud, a former minister of tourism from 2009-14 as part of now President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement bloc. Abboud spoke to TIMEP from his office outside Beirut. “They probably would have won [the contract], but it has to be very transparent with open data. Maybe [CMA CGM] is the best choice but not in this way.”

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Beirut blast: 2,750 tonnes of government negligence

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Originally published in the New Arab

Beirut has been hit by explosions before, but none quite like this.

While the blast stole the breath of everyone in the country, and even of those 200kms away in Cyprus, the footage did the same for the rest of the world. Despite numerous theories, it became abundantly clear quite quickly that only one thing could be behind this homicidal manifestation: the Lebanese government's monumental negligence.

If DJ parties in Tripoli and inflatable pools in Jounieh were symbols of Lebanon's character during the October Revolution, the rubble currently occupying large swathes of the city has turned Beirut's famous resilience into something more palpable: rage.

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