Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has reiterated that the federal government must enunciate acceptable protocols and metrics to regulate social media in Nigeria to prevent the public space from sliding completely into the hands of “fake news and hate speech” promoters.
The minister spoke on Saturday when he paid an inspection visit to the management and staff of The Nation newspaper and TV Continental in Lagos to identify with them over the torching of their buildings by protesting hoodlums who allegedly hijacked #EndSARS protest in Lagos.
Alhaji Mohammed said the federal government did not at any time envisage, design or contemplate shutting down social media platforms in Nigeria as they are integral part of the democratic process.
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He however insisted that regulating social media is now imperative to prevent it from triggering an uncontrollable era of fake news and hate speech that is capable of wrecking the country.
He said, “We must regulate the social media in a manner that it does not become a purveyor of fake news and hate speech.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the minister who was accompanied on the visit by heads of parastatals and agencies within his ministry, the federal government will not fold its arms and allow purveyors of fake news and hate speech in the social media create an atmosphere of instability.
He said: “ We will not fold our arms to allow purveyors of fake news and hate speech to use the social media to destabilise the country. We did not at any time say that we will shut down the social media.”
He added, “Social media has come to stay and it will be an antithesis to democracy to shut it down because it is the fastest way of disseminating information.
“However, we must regulate the social media in a manner that it does not become a purveyor of fake news and hate speech.
“We will not fold our arms to allow purveyors of fake news and hate speech to use the social media to destabilise the country.”
The minister explained that the federal government anticipated the dangers associated with hate speech and fake news way back in 2017 hence it spoke publicly about the need to regulate the social media space.
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“We saw as far back as 2017 that the next epidemic that will hit Nigeria and the entire world is fake news and misinformation.
“Based on that, we dedicated an entire National Council on Information meeting in Jos to the issue.
“After this, we launched a national campaign on fake news on July 11, 2018, where we stressed that the next war will be fought without a shot being fired but with the use fake news.
“We did not stop there. We went on a tour of all media houses seeking their support against fake news,” the minister said.
NAN reports that Lai Mohammed had on Oct. 8 requested the help and collaboration of the National Assembly in designing a national social media policy to aid government in the management of fake news and hate speech.
(Content curtesy of NAN)
