BEVERLY HILLS, November 02, (THEWILL) – The Federal government has said it has no intention to shut down the social media. Rather, it plans to regulate social media to be responsible and refrain from being purveyors of fake news and hate speech.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed made this known during an inspection tour on the headquarters of The Nation newspaper and TV Continental (TVC) that were attacked during the #EndSARS protest.
The Minister said the Buhari administration has high regards for freedom of the press. He said his recent call for the regulation of the excesses of the social media should not be misconstrued for a total ban.
“We did not at any time say that we will shut down the social media. 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 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”, he said.
Mohammed said some of the owners of social media platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp were making attempts to regulate their use because of the danger of fake news. He said that the government foresaw the danger of fake news and hate speech as far back as 2017.
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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 of fake news. We did not stop there. We went on a tour of all media houses seeking their support against fake news” he added.
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