SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, has revealed that the government is deploying many strategies to contain fake news among which are campaigns to media houses and cooperation with Facebook and Google.
Mr Mohammed, who was featured on a Nigeria Television Authority programme, ‘Tuesday Live,’ said the government would not be distracted by fake news in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On Facebook, for instance, anytime we flag any particular item or story it will be stamped “FAKE” and be removed from the platform and this has gone a long way in checkmating this pandemic,” he said.
“We have made reports to various security organisations on this and a lot of things are being down to track them.
“However, what is needed is to be educating Nigerians to shun these purveyors and know that there are only two sources for credible information on COVID-19.
“It is either from the daily media conference by the task force and the media appearances of members of the task force or the website of National Centre for Disease Control which updates its information on this pandemic every minute,” he said.
Mr Mohammed also responded to claims that members of the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus are collecting N500,000 daily sitting allowance, noting that the purveyors of such “fake news” are evil.
“The motives behind the upsurge are to distract the government and discredit the main actors so that they can be battling with the fake news instead of COVID-19.
“Some of the fake new are totally ridiculous but some are a mixture of fiction and science that make them sometimes believable.
“At the end of the day, they are meant to achieve the purposes of distracting government and castigate those who are carrying out the policies and programmes of government by accusing them of corruption
“For instance, the allegation that each member of the task force are getting half a million every day as sitting allowance has led to many of us receiving accounts from many people.
“Those who believe that if you are getting such huge amount of money daily, you must share it with them, but we will not be distracted,” he said.
