cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/33884
Last Updated on March 9, 2026 Elite networks in Guatemala are using social media platforms to orchestrate coordinated online smear campaigns against anti-corruption activists, environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders, Global Witness today reveals. A new report by the investigative organization details how popular social media platforms including X, Facebook and TikTok are being flooded with thousands of abusive, hateful, defamatory and misleading posts targeting activists and Indigenous leaders in the country.
Drawing on interviews with Mayan leaders – including some who are imprisoned or in exile – the report examines how these smear campaigns lay the groundwork for spurious criminal charges that threaten victims with decades in jail.
Repression
The investigation maps the powerful networks of political and economic interests behind many of the attacks, which campaigners say are helping silence dissent and undermine Guatemala’s fragile democracy.
Corrupt networks, particularly within Guatemala’s justice system, have spent years working to erode democratic institutions and repress legitimate opposition in the Central American country.
The report uncovers how these same forces are now mobilizing fake news sites and anonymous online accounts to spread disinformation that defames their political and ideological opponents and threatens them with criminal charges.
Campaigners say these online attacks are not isolated or spontaneous. Rather, they form part of a wider strategy to discredit dissent, intimidate communities, criminalize activists and protect entrenched power.
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