Press Statement: CODE launches New Election Research and VoterMaxxing Website
With less than a month to go before South Africans vote in the 2026 Local Government Elections, the Campaign on Digital Ethics (CODE) has today launched a new research report, The Algorithmic Ballot: Volume II – Democracy in the Feed, alongside VoterMaxxing.org, a new public website designed to help voters navigate the election information environment.
The report examines how South Africans encounter election information, their exposure to false and misleading content, and whether the country’s newly introduced Electoral Code of Conduct on Countering Disinformation is equipped for the realities of modern digital campaigning.
Download the report
CODE surveyed 771 people in July 2026. While the survey is not nationally representative, its findings provide insight into the experiences of a predominantly younger, urban and politically engaged group of respondents.
The findings reveal significant concern about the integrity of South Africa’s information environment. Eighty-three percent of respondents believe false information poses a serious threat to South Africa’s democracy, while 60% are concerned that AI-generated content could mislead voters during the elections. Perhaps most significantly, 91% of respondents receive election-related information from at least one social or messaging platform, yet only 11% place high trust in social media.
“Social media is no longer simply somewhere political conversations happen. It has become part of our electoral infrastructure,” said Kavisha Pillay, Executive Director of CODE. “We are increasingly making political choices in information environments shaped by algorithms, influencers, political advertising and AI-generated content. Yet the systems determining what voters see remain largely opaque.”
Voters are not the problem
Respondents demonstrated relatively strong digital literacy: 83% correctly identified common warning signs of an unreliable news website and 80% understood what a “Paid Partnership” label meant. However, verification declined when it required more time, data or technical knowledge.
“One of the most important things this research tells us is that we cannot place the entire burden of protecting democracy on individual voters,” said Pillay. “We can teach people to pause, check and verify, but digital literacy cannot make an opaque advertising system transparent or tell you why an algorithm decided to amplify a particular piece of political content. We cannot fact-check our way out of a structurally broken information environment.”
The report consequently calls for a combination of public education and stronger accountability, including greater transparency around paid political influence, accessible verification tools, support for young and first-time voters, and direct obligations on technology platforms.
New Disinformation Code faces its first major test
The 4 November election will also be the first major test of South Africa’s new Electoral Code of Conduct on Countering Disinformation, which came into force on 4 September 2026.
The Code requires political parties and candidates to check information before sharing it, label political advertising and AI-generated content, and publicly correct false or misleading information within 36 hours of becoming aware of it. Real411, a platform designed by Moxii Africa, has been designated as the official mechanism for reporting suspected election-related disinformation.
CODE welcomes the new framework but warns that significant gaps remain. Most importantly, the Code places no direct obligations on the technology companies whose systems distribute and amplify political information.
“The new Code is an important step forward, but this election will tell us whether it has teeth,” Pillay said. “A correction that nobody sees is not much of a correction. And we cannot meaningfully regulate digital campaigning while leaving the machinery of amplification outside the accountability framework.”
Introducing VoterMaxxing
Alongside the report, CODE has today launched VoterMaxxing.org, a central repository for credible election information and practical resources for South African voters.
Borrowing from internet culture, where “maxxing” refers to optimising or improving something, VoterMaxxing encourages South Africans to max out their power as voters: to understand how local government and elections work, critically assess the political information they encounter, verify before sharing, and ultimately make informed choices at the ballot box.
For CODE, the report and VoterMaxxing represent two sides of the same intervention: understanding the information environment voters are entering, while giving them practical tools to navigate it.
“A free vote is not only a ballot cast without intimidation,” Pillay said. “It is a choice made with access to information you can trust and without hidden manipulation determining what you see. If we care about protecting the vote, we have to protect the information environment in which that vote is formed.”
Media queries:
Kavisha Pillay - kavisha@code-sa.org
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