As worldwide cases of mpox cases surge, online misinformation, conspiracy theories and homophobic comments are harming efforts to bring the epidemic under control in Africa. Social media users in Kenya have blamed the LGBTQ+ community for spreading the virus they referred to as "gay pox". Others claim Kenyan youth who attended a summer festival in July and who formed the backbone of anti-government protests that erupted in June caused the outbreak. Some posts circulated a fabricated memo alleging staff at a leading media organisation were infected. But health experts and government officials citing official data have rejected the claims as false.

Kenya's Nation Media Group (NMG) was the subject of an X post published on August 21, 2024, with what was portrayed as an internal memo purportedly alerting staff to rising cases of mpox within the organisation.

The post’s caption claimed management attributed the "spread" of mpox at one of the group’s companies – the television channel NTV – to "LGBT acts" and "issued a strong warning on the employees who are actively engaging in such acts (sic)".

The purported memo, which claimed three mpox cases had been confirmed at NTV owing to inappropriate sexual conduct, appeared in other posts here and here.

On the same day, another post on X circulated with a digital card featuring the logo of Kenyan news website "Kenyans.co.ke", claiming that the country’s mpox outbreak was traced to a festival called "Summer Tides" held in Kenya’s...

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