Nicaragua: Digital Repression Confirmed via Troll Farms
HAVANA TIMES – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has confirmed that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo continues to use a coordinated strategy of “misinformation and stigmatization” against human rights defenders, through the use of “digital mobs” or “troll farms” that harass, threaten, and discredit individuals in Nicaragua.
This is documented in the IACHR’s Third Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Americas, published in October 2025.
This time, the Commission acknowledges the existence of a “coordinated pattern” designed to “discredit their defense activities” and stigmatize defenders.
“Stigmatization may also be linked to the initiation of criminal proceedings through the issuance of public statements accusing them of committing crimes, without such accusations necessarily being judicially proven,” the report notes.
The report describes how these “troll farms” function as propaganda and intimidation arms of the regime.
In 2023, an investigation by Confidencial warned about the resurgence of “Sandinista troll farms” that had been removed by Facebook and Twitter in 2021. That year, a total of 1,414 accounts were deleted, including 896 personal accounts, 132 Facebook pages, 24 Facebook groups, and 362 Instagram users.
The IACHR’s 2024 annual report on Nicaragua highlighted investigations by independent media outlets and civil society organizations that mentioned the existence of “digital mobs” or “troll farms” using TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and X to carry out attacks.
The institutions from which these operations are conducted include:
• Correos de Nicaragua (the national postal service)
• Managua City Hall
• Institute of Youth (Injuve)
• Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ)
A Legal Framework Created in Nicaragua
However, the report indicates that people tend to avoid sharing information or expressing their opinions on social media out of fear of being criminalized by the regime, which controls the justice system.
The document highlights the use of restrictive legal frameworks designed to criminalize critical expression in the digital sphere.
In Nicaragua, the regime uses Law 1042 — better known as the “Special Cybercrimes Law” — as an instrument of judicial persecution, according to the IACHR. The regime also relies on Law 1055 on the defense of the people’s rights to independence, sovereignty, and self-determination for peace, which includes the crime of “treason to the homeland.”
The first law criminalizes the “dissemination of false information through technological means,” punishing those who share information or denunciations inconvenient for the regime; the second is used to criminalize human rights defenders under the charge of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
In its report, the IACHR recalls that these laws have been used to justify arbitrary detentions and criminal prosecutions against defenders.
In September 2021, the organization expressed concern over the prosecution of attorney and human rights defender Maria Oviedo and peasant leader Pedro Mena, both charged with “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “spreading false news.” Both were later banished from the country.
IACHR Records Digital Aggressions
The impact of this coordinated pattern of stigmatization is even more severe in the case of women human rights defenders.
Between 2020 and October 31, 2024, more than 7,400 digital attacks were recorded in the Mesoamerican region — which includes Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico — many of them specifically targeting women.
According to the IACHR report, the most frequent forms of “virtual aggression” include:
• Harassment
• Threats
• Spreading false information
• Smear campaigns
• Questioning or undermining the leadership, morality, ethics, or professionalism of the defenders or their organizations
“These are violent, coordinated, and overtly sexualized attacks, carried out with malicious intent, that inflict very real psychological harm, destroy the professional careers of women, and deprive society of vital voices and perspectives,” the report emphasizes.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.