Misinformation and online hate speech are fuelling panic and division in South Sudan at a time of acute political tensions that observers fear could drive the country back to war.
Ethnic divisions, particularly between the largest communities, the Dinka and Nuer, fuelled the brutal civil war of 2013-18 in which some 400,000 people died.
After years of relative calm, there are worrying signs of renewed ethnic polarisation, said Nelson Kwaje, chair of Digital Rights Frontlines, an organisation based in the capital Juba that monitors hate speech and misinformation online.
It comes as the 2018 peace agreement between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar -- who are respectively of Dinka and Nuer ethnicity -- is hanging in the balance after Machar's arrest on Wednesday.
