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 organisation 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.

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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 mobilising 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, criminalise activists and protect entrenched power.

Javier Garate, a senior policy advisor Global Witness, said: “What we are seeing in Guatemala is not random online abuse, it’s a coordinated strategy to silence those that threaten powerful interests.

Protests

“These online campaigns weaponise disinformation to destroy reputations, intimidate communities, and clear the way for extractive violence. Far too often we see online smears of this kind preceding physical attacks, including lethal violence.

“Guatemala shows us how failures in platform governance by companies such as Meta, X and TikTok have devastating consequences for communities and individuals around the world, as well as the rights and land they seek to defend."

This surge in digital harassment is unfolding amid Guatemala’s fragile political landscape, marked by entrenched corruption, close links between political elites and organised crime, and a prolonged struggle to shed the legacy of military dictatorship and chronic impunity.

After anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo secured a surprise victory in  the 2023 election, state prosecutors refused to recognise the outcome, orchestrating efforts to overturn the result. 

Observers described the events as an ‘attempted coup’, which failed following massive Indigenous-led protests and international pressure.

Enforcement

The same forces behind the attempted coup now appear to be punishing protestors who defended the legitimacy of the election – driving coordinated smear campaigns against those who demonstrated to protect the democratic vote.

The report shows that Indigenous leaders and land activists asserting legitimate territorial and land rights are also frequent targets of these campaigns. 

Smear campaigns frequently frame Indigenous or land activism as criminal, extremist or foreign influenced, reinforcing long-standing patterns of discrimination and repression against Mayan communities in Guatemala. 

Global Witness warns that such attacks are designed to isolate defenders from their communities, pave the way for criminalisation, and delegitimise Indigenous claims to land and rights. Last year, key leaders of the pro-democracy movement that surged after the 2023 elections were arrested and could face decades in jail.

The report highlights how weak regulation and enforcement by global social media companies is enabling these abuses.

Politician

Most attacks documented in the report occurred after companies such as Meta and X rolled back key fact-checking and safety measures – decisions widely criticised for exacerbating disinformation and human rights harms.

Global Witness argues these social media companies are failing to enforce their own rules prohibiting harassment, hate speech and incitement to violence.

The report underscores how the criminalisation of land and environmental defenders increasingly begins online, where coordinated harassment and disinformation set the stage for more traditional forms of repression.

Garate added: “We tend to think of criminalisation as something decided by a politician or judge. But increasingly, the social and ideological groundwork is laid online, on the very platforms we use every day.

Justice

“These tactics weaponise stigma, fear and social isolation to strip defenders of their legitimacy, eroding their reputations with the public and within their own communities. When these narratives take hold in digital spaces, defenders can lose long before they see a courtroom. 

What is happening to defenders in Guatemala is a profound threat to democracy and human rights – and an indictment on Big Tech’s failure to act.”

Global Witness said social media companies must be held accountable for their failure to enforce their own anti-harassment policies.

Stronger platform governance, combined with broader accountability measures, is essential to weakening the grip of corrupt actors over Guatemala’s justice system and creating safer conditions for defenders of democracy, the environment, and human rights to carry out their vital work.

This Author

Brendan Montague is an editor at The Ecologist.