The Federal Government has expressed strong concern on the issue of fake news, insisting that the regulation of social media in the country is highly needed.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and the House Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values were sharply divided on the matter on Tuesday
According to Mohammed, the government was not seeking to shut down social media space in the country because “the social media has come to stay”, however, there is the need to have a policy that regulates social media and check fake news and misinformation.
He said, “The biggest challenge facing Nigeria today is fake news and misinformation. Based on that, we dedicated an entire National Council on Information’s meeting to that issue, after which we launched a national campaign against fake news in July 2018.
“We said, then, that the next war will be fought without a shot being fired, but with the use of fake news. We didn’t stop there. We went on a tour of all media houses to solicit their support in the fight against fake news. We launched the campaign to regulate social media, which was bitterly contested by the stakeholders. We kept saying that if we don’t regulate social media, it will destroy us. Social media and fake news will not destroy Nigeria.
“The recent #EndSARS war was fought on social media. They mobilised using the social media. The war today revolves around two things. Smartphone and data and these young men don’t even watch television or listen to radio or read newspapers. You will be shocked that when you start arguing with your children, they will be quoting the social media. So, we need a social media policy in Nigeria and we need to empower the various agencies and we need technology to be able to regulate the social media.”
However Members of the committee, however, cautioned the Minister. A member of the committee, Emmanuel Oghene, warned against any attempt to shut down the social media in the country.
Oghene said the action will be counter-productive and would make the youths to believe that there is an attempt to truncate democracy in the country.
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